Nightfire
by Kiana Caelum
Summary: When Jal awoke, she found herself in a world she didn't know. The only person she could cling was the boy who rescued her...but could he save her from what was hunting her?
1. Part One

**Nightfire Part One**

The nights are long, full of secrets, full of passion and a fire we can never hope to understand.

Something was waking up. It had been asleep for a long time, dreaming of war and blood and killing while above it, the world whirled by in a blur of motion and colour. A long time ago, the creature that slumbered under the earth had tasted the darkness, but it was no dragon with revenge chasing through its blood like comets seeking the sun, nor a seeker of another's soul, chasing lost love. But it was alive.

And now the dreams had stopped. The voices died away and took the shadows with them, took the fire and the fury. The nightmares fled, leaving an empty space that was waiting to be filled as the creature awoke.

This is a story about the night.

oOo

_The Nightfire Temple, around 8000BC_

The silver knife glittered in the candlelight. It was beautiful, the hilt made in the form of a dragon with the wings as the crossbar and the elongated tail a rapier blade. Words were etched on it she couldn't read.

It was bloodstained.

Just a single smear of red, that was all, but enough to hold her still with unexpected fear. Slowly, too slowly, she looked up and met the eyes of the man standing behind the altar.

"Dirt," he said. They weren't supposed to speak during the ritual, but he had never been one for rules. "That's all."

Jallakri ap Ganra stood tall, refusing to let anyone see her doubts. She should have none, she told herself.

All around her was black. The stone walls had been slathered with pitch, as had the slender pillars that ringed the pool. Under the shadows, even the water was dark as ink, swirling as if stirred by an unseen hand. The candelabras threw off the only light, soft orange that limned the robes of the people surrounding her.

But all her fear was soothed as she looked into the face of her beloved. Kaajen mal Ifiche had the face of an emperor, slicing cheekbones and a proud mouth, and he carried it well.

He stared back, his gaze straight and strangely hard. His eyes were dark as wine in the gloom, though she knew under daylight that they were a bright, glaring blue.

"Jallakri ap Ganra."

She brought her palms to touch in front of her, conscious of the heavy gold collar that hung around her neck.

"My lord."

"Do you offer yourself to this temple?"

"I do."

She heard something like a sigh, or perhaps a growl. It raised gooseflesh on her arms, but she did not move. It had come from one of the other six. Like him, they wore the silver collar crafted in the shape of two dragons, their tails the necklace and the heads of the dragons touching below their throats in a fiery kiss.

"Will you become a vassal of this temple, giving yourself to us mind, body and soul?"

"I will."

With that utterance, something changed. She felt it, as she might a prophecy; intangible, half-real, like a dream twisting away on waking.

It was the greatest honour that could be given among her people; to be sworn to the temple that controlled the land. She would walk among the people, and they would know she held ancient secrets close to her heart. She would see their respect – and their fear.

She would be forgotten, ignored, sneered at no longer.

"Then you are ours."

Another odd echoing of words he had spoken to her.

_You are mine_, he had said possessively with that half-smile that always made her stomach curl in desire, running one finger over her browbone with a moth's touch. Though it had been daylight then, the sun blazing heat on them and the air simmering.

"The altar." It was one of the others who spoke and the harsh croak made her jump. There was something feverish in it, a desperation she had heard her sister shriek in her delirium when the plague had taken her this last moon.

And of course, Jal obeyed. The innocent of then stepping up, holding out her wrists as he instructed. She swallowed down fear as he picked up the knife. It would only be a little blood, she told herself firmly. And it wouldn't hurt much.

The pain was sharp and sudden.

Jal bit back her scream, but her arms trembled as blood slewed over her skin. She did not want to show weakness: not here, not to them. Perspiration trailed down her back and beaded on her forehead.

"You chose well, mal Ifiche," one said in that dissonant voice. "Strong. Young. She will do well indeed."

"We shall see," she heard Kaajen say flatly. "The others broke. She may too."

And then she couldn't think, could barely breathe because the blade came down on her wrist again and the worst of it was the sheer slowness. She endured, eyes squeezed shut, her gasps carving up the air into pieces of pain. When it stopped, her legs were quivering and watery.

"Is it over?" she said in a voice that was much fainter than before. Jal opened her eyes and nearly retched at the mess. Red, too much, she saw that at once.

"Over?" A rasping laugh. "Oh no...it has barely begun."

"But..." Jal turned back to Kaajen, not knowing how her eyes pleaded. "You told me..."

"I told you rather a lot, Jallakri. If you believed even half of it, you were a fool. Too wrapped up in love and truth and beauty." His eyes were mocking and cold. "Here is your truth. You are bound to the gods."

"I don't understand," she whispered.

"Understand this," Kaajen said, leaning forward so close he could have kissed her. "You had every chance to refuse. You did not. Whatever happens now, you have made it so."

He nodded at one of the others and something hot touched her wrists. She screamed and just as rapidly, it was gone. Gasping, she looked down and saw a cross in each wrist, pale and cauterised. She realised then that Kaajen didn't care. That he never had, that she had walked into this trap just as he had wanted her to.

"The final promise," he whispered. "Then you rise again, Jallakri. And be as you were meant to."

His head bent towards hers, so she could see herself and her ashen, terrified face reflected in those eyes. She thought he would kiss her. His mouth dipped and—

He bit her neck.

And her eyes widened impossibly until they seemed to be all white, her mouth open as agony stabbed her. Teeth crunching into her flesh with enormous strength, her own shrill scream as the pain clawed at her.

Jal wrenched free, her ears ringing. Warm liquid ran down her neck. She understood instinctively that she was hurt, that she didn't have long to run. And so she ran blindly, moving as far and as fast from Kaajen as she could. Her mind spun. He was supposed to love her, but he had lied.

He caught her as easily as if she hadn't moved.

"You should never have run, 'Lakri," he said almost teasingly. The nickname sounded obscene with those empty eyes boring into her. "There really is no point. They all try to run and none of them ever get anywhere. It's such a short fall to the shadows, my darling."

Before she could even draw breath to reply, his hands clamped hard around her shoulders, holding her absolutely still. He bit her again; her head reeled while her body melted into fire and anguish.

Then came a new torture; an incredible pain, a hand wrenching out her memories and tearing her mind away from everything she knew. They were wiping her clean as a slate, making her as they wanted.

All the while, he took her blood; took and took in every way possible. Time became meaningless under his hands, his teeth, his shadow-filled eyes. Her body became a cage, a trap, the only thing that pinned her to this earth and him. She wept, and even the salt of her tears felt like a betrayal as they burned on her wounds.

Death had to be near. At least it would end...

_Not for you_, said Kaajen, his voice rich and scornful. _Not anymore_._ You'll live forever, darling, and serve Nightfire - just as you wanted._

And as the bitter truth of his words struck her, a scream tore from her throat. She toppled into darkness, unutterably changed.

His laughter followed her into the void.

oOo

_Ryars Valley: Now_

She had been sleeping for a long time.

Now she was awake. She was cold, and it was night, but not the night she had last opened her eyes on.

Jal knew that like she knew the other basic facts about herself. Not that there were very many. She searched her mind. It was like looking into the desert. Mostly empty, but with so much hidden, so much buried.

Her name. Jallakri ap Ganra, human, female. From the Eastern Lands, but unique, alone among the dark people because of her fair, wavy hair and icy-pale green eyes, the colour of a monsoon in sunlight.

Kaajen. The thought made her heart sting. He had done something. Hurt her, though she felt no different. But whatever he had done...it was still there. Waiting. But as for the rest...nothing. Awful grey blankness.

And...she was in the dark. Fear screamed down her spine like a current, complete, horrible. Panic overrode every sensible thought she had. She was in the dark, she was still falling and she was screaming...

The moment the shriek left her throat, she realised that she wasn't. She couldn't see, but she could hear herself, that awful tight high scream that had disappeared upwards, because she was lying on the ground with the air moving over her like the brush of silk. A tunnel yawned behind her like a dark maw. There was dirt under her nails, smeared on her hands, as if she'd crawled from the depths of the earth.

Where was she? Not in the desertlands, that was for sure. The night sky hung over her, spattered with star and lit by a thin slice of moon that dangled like a silver slipper.

Then she heard it. An almost imperceptible crunch. The sound of something trying to be silent, slinking, smooth. And there was only one thing that moved like that.

A predator.

She sat, stretching unused muscles that responded with smooth pain. She could smell it now, a heavy musky scent that was blood and hunting combined with the fresh, leafy scent of the woods. Her heart sped up, fear prickling like ice along her skin.

"Who's there?" she called, and then realised just how bad an idea that was. Now whatever it was could find her that much quicker. It would hunt her because she was new, unknown. And maybe a threat.

A low growl answered her. It seemed to come from everywhere.

She groped for a branch. There weren't any. "Who's out there?" she called again. "You might as well show yourself. I don't suppose you're planning to wait forever."

Another growl was the answer. A branch cracked behind her and Jal whipped around, her hands flying into a defensive stance. Only the trees, swaying a little in the wind and a flat patch among the grass and leaves that told her something had been lying there, watching her.

Breathe. Just breathe.

"Come out," she called shakily. "What are you so afraid of? Not me, surely?"

She listened hard. Owlsong, the wind, the sounds of something she couldn't quite identify, all faded into the background.

And then she heard it.

A patient, even touch, feet moving in a whispery, sibilant sound - _saa_. Far more important were the spaces between that sound. They were getting smaller.

It was moving faster.

It was coming closer.

She moved her head from side to side, trying to find it.

_Saa_.

_Saa-saa saa-saa..._

It was right behind her.

Jal spun.

And looked into two glowing eyes. They stared back, and the pupil seemed to swell, swallowing all the light and throwing an eldritch green radiance back at her until she was hypnotised by the sheer force of that stare. What she saw frightened her. The dark was in those eyes, and something else too. Something inhuman.

She didn't dare move. Below the eyes, the muzzle seemed to gape, and rows of teeth glistened. A wolf. A hunter. A slayer.

You'd better run now, something said inside her. Or there won't be any time left because it's getting closer, Jal, it's getting far too close.

She slid one foot back.

Her blood pounded loudly, drowning out the papery sound of the wolf's next step.

Jal turned and ran.

Behind her she heard a howl filled with bloodlust and hunger, scraping up into the night air.

Trees tore her legs, grass tried to twine around her feet, and the ground was uneven and difficult to run on, but run she did. And, Jal realised with sudden shock, she was actually escaping. The wolf was further and further behind. But her breath was becoming more of a gasp, her legs were starting to fill with heaviness and she knew there wasn't really anywhere left to run and after that...it would be over.

And then she burst out of the trees and onto a space. A flat, grey piece of land, though Jal couldn't decide what it was. Something not quite stone, not quite land. But she did recognise it as a path.

There was someone walking on it.

Her heart soared. She called out to him. He looked up. In the dark, his face was pale. He was only a boy - no older than her, and squinting as if he couldn't see well in the silvery moonlight. His voice was startled, low...

And she couldn't understand a word he was saying.

He stretched out a hand, offering help. His eyes were dark as wine in the night, all too human.

"No." Jal swatted away the hand, a stitich doubling her over. Sweat stung in every cut and scrape, and it was a sharp reminder of what might follow if it caught her. "You don't understand!"

The boy asked a question, his voice bemused, but calm.

"The wolves," she said with desperation, standing up again and pointing into the woods. "The grey creatures, they growl, they bite, they kill." She imitated one, snapping her teeth at him.

She saw enlightenment dawn on him. Jal didn't need to understand the short, sharp word he uttered with a bleak expression. He pointed up the road and indicated they should run.

But Jal was looking past him. It was too late for that.

Green lights drifted towards them in matched pairs, eerie as will o' the wisps. And when they stopped, she could see they were a dozen pairs of eldritch eyes, and snarls rumbled in a dozen throats. Tiny circles of light sprang from trails of saliva; the wolves had mud caked on their paws and they circled the pair, growling and snarling and snapping.

They had been surrounded.

oOo


	2. Part Two

Thank you to the lovely, lovely people who commented on the first part ::beams:: You made my day! Thanks Water Angel (Hi! I didn't know you were on here!), Millennia (It **is** FoF 6…y'all are the first to read it so I'm very nervous!) and Nixa (Thank you so much!) Je t'aime, je t'adore…

I would love, love, love and fervently worship any reviews/comments/criticisms, almost as much as I worship the people who comment. :-)

Kiana

Nightmaze Part Two 

He didn't see the wolf until it leapt at him, teeth bared to snap down.

Cern Akafren was beginning to regret being a witch. So far, all it had brought him was a lot of trouble with the Elders of Ryars Valley. And round here, the Elders' idea of punishment ran along the lines of death, execution or loss of life. Which one you chose was up to you.

It had started quite harmlessly. With Cougar Redfern, obnoxious vampire extraordinaire, making the idle comment that if witches were any use, they wouldn't be so easy to kill. Cern hadn't been in the best of moods that day and put a speech spell on Cougar in quiet revenge. The vampire had walked around speaking Inuit for the rest of the week.

Needless to say, the Elders soon heard about it – when they found a translator – and the result had been the unpleasant three hour interview and lecture he had just had. By the time he left, he had to walk back while the wolves were out hunting. And just to add to the fun, he had been banned from magick. The Elders had known as well as he did that the wolves didn't care *what* they killed on a hunt night.

He had got about half way back before the trouble really started. 

Cern had pushed a branch out of the way. The woods overhung the road, casting spiny shadows. It was a good hunt night; a clear moon with only a few clouds that feathered harmlessly across it. But still...although the howls were far away, he had the uncanny sense that he was being followed.

All the warning he had was a growl and the sound of feet on the ground.

He moved instinctively and felt hot air and the snarl of a wolf in mid-spring flow past him, smooth as thrown water. It landed with a soft thud and he turned, his night vision showing him the sinewy, slinky shape ready to launch itself at him again. He recognised the reddish tinge to the coat at once. Donna Ares, the Pack leader. And here he was with no magick, facing a row of teeth that gleamed silver.

"Donna," he said calmly, knowing better than to show fear. She fed on it. "I have not had a good day."

The wolf's green eyes glowed and sparked as it shapeshifted, then he was staring into the avid eyes of a young woman whose face was as arrogant as her casual stance; one hand on her hip, feet evenly spaced. 

"Well, what are you doing in these parts so late?" she inquired, her voice husky and alluring. "I can assure you, your day will only get worse from here onwards."

"Kamikaze mission," he answered cheerfully, relieved she was in human form. "I spelled Cougar, I got punished. You know how it is." He looked at her pointedly. "Aren't you cold?"

See, there was one other thing about Donna Ares that added to her overall air of a mysterious enchantress stepping out of the woods. She had lovely, flawless skin that had a silvery sheen to it. And he could see all of that skin right now. 

Donna's sensuous smile danced like light off a ruby, tongue flicking out to moisten her berry lips. "Why don't you come and keep me warm, darling?" she purred. Her eyes glittered a green challenge from under her eyelashes. It was moments like these when he wasn't sure whether to bless or curse his night vision. 

"And have your Pack come running as soon as you've got me sufficiently distracted?" drawled Cern. "No thanks, Donna. I've heard about that little trick before."

The enticing expression disappeared as Donna's eyes narrowed. She held her head up, glaring at him, one hand tapping on her stomach edgily. "Pity. I suppose we'll just have to fight it out."

He shrugged. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her. "Go ahead. I'm brimming with magick tonight. And I'll bet your little gang are just *burning* for another defeat."

Fury turned her gaze a bright blazing red for a second. Her leg twitched convulsively and Cern couldn't help but smile, though he kept it hidden. She was so predictable. Donna's hold over the Pack was precarious and he guessed she was too fond of her respect and power to throw it away on a witch.

"We'll discuss this another time," she said finally. Her teeth were gritted. "And then it will be between you and me, Akafren."

"I'll bring the wine," he offered. "You just bring your charming self, Donna." 

As she glared, fingers hooked into claws, he held her gaze. Unafraid. He had won now, they both knew that. Then Donna was gone and he was left alone with the wind sighing around his ears. 

And that, he thought, was the end of it.

****

Now he stared as the unfamiliar girl ran towards him, her face ashen with panic. He was only a half-mile or so from the home he shared with a shapeshifter and a human friend. But it was far enough, obviously.

She stopped, almost falling forward. Long legged, with pale eyes that were full of emotions he couldn't quite qualify. There was fear, relief and maybe excitement too. Then her face was hidden as she leant forward, breathing hard. Where had she come from? She *couldn't* have been walking in the woods. That was pure insanity.

"Are you okay?" 

He reached towards her, intending to heal the cuts and bruises she sported. Not running for pleasure, but the wild uncontrolled flight of someone afraid and hunted. His mind was working fast. 

There was something out there this girl wanted to run from. And he realised with a jolt that he couldn't hear the howls of the Pack anymore. Just the silence, and the girl's breath like the rhythm of feet on grass.

She hit his hand away, plastered with mud that clung to her in a second skin. As she moved, flakes crumpled off from her flesh and from her clothes. She said something, but not in English. 

"Can you understand me?" he asked quickly, his voice a knife blade. "Who is chasing you?" 

She said something again, then snapped her teeth at him and growled. A perfect imitation. And they were in trouble. Because the wolves wouldn't have forgotten her. Possibly they let her go, to prolong the hunt, or perhaps she *had* managed to outrun them. But with the aroma of the blood from her cuts, they wouldn't have to look too hard.

"We have to go," he said urgently, pointing towards the town. They couldn't see the streetlights from here, bit it wasn't far to go. Five minutes running."There's people there who can—"

It was then he noticed her gaze had slid over her shoulder, her muddy hands pressed against her mouth. The jade lights seeming to almost float towards them from the inky black of the night. 

The eyes of the Pack.

**** 

"Well," Donna said with a bright, hard smile from where she knelt, hands supporting her. Around her the Pack circled lazily. "Look who it is again! The boy who's been casting forbidden spells. Tut-tut, darling. And do you know what else we heard on the howl?"

"Do enlighten me," Cern drawled. But the look on her face didn't make him feel so good about bluffing his way out. "How would I survive without hearing the flea-bite gossip?"

"They banned you from using your magick for a moon." Her laugh was brittle and hungry, her body leaning towards him like a stone in a catapult. Ready to fly at any moment. "Isn't that interesting?"

"Isn't it just?" he answered evenly. "But I'm sure there's better hunting over the other side of town."

Her teeth flashed, a shimmer of saliva falling from the corner of her lips."But I told *you* we'd discuss this. And maybe there isn't just you and me, Akafren, but I've always said the more, the merrier." 

Her mirth seemed to infect the other wolves who growled and wriggled and flexed muscles, fur gleaming messily, rough and unkempt as Donna's snaking red hair.

"I've never agreed with that." Cern muttered vaguely. 

His ears told him that a wolf was strolling behind him, the pat of its paws like raindrops. He turned and calmly slammed a foot into the wolf's ribs. Right where it would do the most damage. 

"This food has bite," he said with a careless smile. "Care to find out how much, Donna dear?"

Her eyes were confused. She hadn't expected him to attack like that. Wolves fought fair. And now...he could read the indecision in her eyes. If he would strike when unprovoked, would he break the binding spell the Elders had put on him? He silently dared her to find out.

Then her mouth relaxed in a smirk. "Yes, I think I would." 

Her form rippled...and she leapt.

****

It was all chaos for a second. 

Then the wolves were springing – some of them at her, Jal saw. Her mind spun briefly, then she was moving, not down, but up, jumping with reflexes she hadn't even known she had. The night air rushed coolly on her face, and she was back on the earth. Out of that lethal, snarling circle. 

The wolves turned and one charged her. Aiming for her throat. She waited, knowing that she had to because they were so godscursed *fast* and then slammed a foot up and out. She had never fought, she *was* no fighter, but her body seemed to know what to do. And she let it. The wolf tumbled back, but another was in its place. It leapt and—

Jal's hand slammed out. 

She screamed as it bit her, that same stabbing pain that she remembered from years ago and for a terrifying second, she thought she would fall into blackness again, plummeting in blood spirals and her voice shattering into fragments.

But something strange happened. There was a cracking sound, a blaze of fire in the night and the wolf slumped. All the noise and activity stilled. 

And the man who stepped forward was grinning in a very nasty way.

****

Cern had been in the midst of kicking and clawing his way out of the Pack, thanking Dragon Tiamat, his shapeshifter friend mentally for all the self-defence lessons, when the shot cut through the air. Suddenly, wolves were falling away from him, the jaws that had closed on his leg releasing as they all turned to look at the person holding the revolver.

Not very old, was Cern's first judgement. Maybe his age. And his second thought; vampire. 

The boy was grinning, his fangs showing deliberately. The blue eyes matched the spiky cobalt hair and there was a supercilious, vicious smile as he held the firearm with perfectly steady hands. He reminded Cern of someone, but he couldn't think who. All his attention was concentrated on the gun.

"Why don't you all run home to your kennels?" the boy suggested. Fingernails tapped the barrel of the gun. A metallic, clacking sound. "This thing's loaded with enough bullets to put a large dent in your pack."

One of the wolves shapeshifted abruptly into Donna Ares. She stood up and pushed her fiery hair back as if it irritated her. "Who the hell are you?" she demanded furiously. Eyes blood red.

The stranger didn't balk at the werewolf's sky-clad form but merely raised a critical eyebrow, a lightning bolt in it glinting silver. Cern was shocked to see Donna Ares of all people, flush. 

"I think I preferred you with the fur on," the boy commented in a cool, emotionless voice. 

Donna grinned but there was no humour in it and her teeth, still far too jagged for a human, glinted. "I think I'd prefer you with your head gone."

"Like her, you mean?" the boy said, his strangely piercing eyes flicking sideways.

Cern turned and saw the girl who had caused all the trouble. And breathed in sharply. Oh *gods*. One of her fingers was missing; bitten clean off.

He faced Donna again and glared back. "Why the hell are you hunting her, Donna?"

"Because she was there, witch boy. What's she to you?" 

Question for question as the girl didn't cry, or wail, or do anything but sit with her hand clutched to her and her knees drawn up. Blood was welling around the missing finger and he knew they had to get rid of the Pack and get this girl somewhere safe. 

"Nothing. But you know you're not supposed to attack people. And she asked me for help."

Donna rolled her eyes. "Oh, and I bet you had to lend a hand out of the generosity of your heart." She snorted contemptuously. "Pull the other one, Akafren. I bet if she didn't have those big puppy-dog eyes and those long legs you'd have thrown her to the wolves." 

"Are you supposed to attack your own kind?" The stranger watched her face carefully, looking for a reaction. Donna had been studiously ignoring him.

"We don't attack wolves," she said now, hands on hips. "We look after our own."

"Why'd you attack her then?" The boy with the spiky blue hair gestured to their prey. The gun stayed locked on Donna though and her mouth curved down with sullen ire.

"She's not..." 

But the protest died on Donna's lips as they all turned to stare at the girl. She looked wary and moved away from the Pack leader slightly. Away from the blue-haired stranger, too. And Cern could see what he hadn't noticed before; there *was* the same slinking action to her movements, that spark of wildness in her eyes and the way her lips skinned back slightly to show perfectly normal teeth...but the moment anyone came near, he bet they'd be dealing with a full set of fangs.

"Oh, I think she is," Cern said quietly. "And I think you should be more careful, Donna, or you're going to kill someone who'll matter." He gave her an angelic smile as the Pack snarled in warning. "Why don't you take your hunt somewhere else tonight? Somewhere *far* away."

Her short, blunt fingers twisted in anxiety. "Yeah," she said. He knew what she was thinking; the Pack had attacked one of their own. They had broken even the one rule they kept. And if the Elders heard... "You keep schtum about this, y'hear?"

He pretended to consider it. Come on, Donna. You're going to have to do better than that. "And...?"

"And what? You expecting to get something out of this?"

He chuckled, and the mud-covered girl looked up at him sharply. Maybe she didn't hear laughter very often. "Of course I am. How about a little bit of immunity? For me *and* the Circle – and that includes her," he gestured to the girl and she bared her teeth at him. "Oh and this guy, in case you get any smart ideas about revenge." The stranger raised a sardonic eyebrow and muttered thanks. 

Donna stamped her foot, clearly hating the idea. "Fine," she snapped. "But we're even now."

He dared to laugh – at her this time, and could see the headstrong Pack leader storing that away. 

"Donna, you will always be odd."

****

The Pack was gone not much later. The depths of night were starting to close in; the hot valley air was cooling now and soon the wind would be chill. But that wasn't what Cern was worried about.

The healer part of him did not like the look of that impromptu amputation at all. It had stopped bleeding as much, mostly due to the fact she had her other hand wrapped tight round the injury, cutting down the blood supply.But the wound still looked very nasty and under the dirt, her skin had gone a chalky colour.

"Come on," he said gently to her. He glanced over at the stranger. "Give me a hand, would you? I don't know if she'll be okay to walk."

"Sure." The vampire threw the gun into a rucksack on his back. "Know her, do you?" The question seemed casual, but there was a cagey note to it that puzzled Cern.

"Never seen her before." They hauled her onto her feet. Close up, the clothes she was wearing were strange. Old-fashioned and made of basic materials that he didn't recognise. The mud coating her was a thick layer; maybe as much as a centimetre on her arms. "Why are you walking the ghost roads this late?"

"The ghost roads?" Almost amusement in that voice, with something barbed beneath it.

"Yeah," he replied as the girl pushed them away irritably, saying something in her language, musical, almost like birdsong. "We call them that because if you walk up them at night, you'll soon be a ghost."

"How quaint." A pause for a few minutes as all three concentrated on walking. Up ahead, the town lights grew brighter. "I'm new in town."

Cern grinned and stopped to grab the girl as she stumbled. She flinched away and then hissed something at him. He guessed it wasn't polite thanks. "I realised. Everyone knows everyone else round here. It's pretty small-town."

"With all the people that have come this way?" The stranger saw the alarmed glance Cern shot at him. "I've...done my research. Your population's about half what it should be."

He shrugged. The girl stumbled again, and this time, when he steadied her, didn't swear or spit at him. "People die a lot. You know they won't let you leave now?"

"They couldn't stop me. And they wouldn't even try."

Cern blinked a little at the boy's arrogance. He obviously didn't know what the Elders here were like."They'd try all right. And succeed. Once you're here, you stay. Either in town, or in a grave." 

The town lights were clear now and as they stepped onto the first illuminated area, the girl sighed in relief. He glanced at her. In the glow, her eyes were a radiant pale green. She gave him the barest smile, but it held a warning. Don't come too close.

"They couldn't stop me." The voice was filled with ice and steel. And Cern believed the boy. " I'll make my visits, and I'll go. I do what I want."

"Visiting? Who?" Jepar Jubatus' house, where Cern was staying since his last house had been blown to shards, was the next street along. There were no house lights on now. Strange things happened when the shadows fell, and people didn't want to see them. "Most here don't have family. Except for the humans."

"My brother. My older brother, to be exact. And I've some...matters that must be sorted out."

Jepar's house was just up ahead. The girl seemed to be listening to them, turning her head from one to the other as if she was deciphering everything, but the pain had made a line in her forehead and her steps seemed to drag more. "We're almost here. Thanks, by the way." He held out a hand. "I'm Cern Akafren."

The vampire accepted and grinned lopsidedly. "Blue Malefici. You'll probably see me around." He looked at the girl and for a brief second, something unpleasant glittered in his eyes. As if he were holding that gun again, dangerous and cold. "*You'll* certainly see me around." 

"I hope you find your brother," Cern said politely. He unlocked the door and ushered the girl inside. She gave him a single suspicious glance, but the alertness in her eyes had been overshadowed by a wooziness that alarmed the healer in him. He stepped in and shut the door.

****

As soon as they were gone, the vampire's friendly attitude disappeared. The cobalt eyes became cold, cruel and they seemed to draw in the darkness. His face was thoughtful, but the tiniest hints of an icy smile were turning up his mouth. His brother. Here. But not, hopefully, for long.

The Nightfire Temple had sent him here because of his success last time. Last time. His eyes narrowed fractionally as he ignored the unpleasant memories of his previous trip here. So the girl was awake. And the question was; what did she know of who she was? 

Neither the girl or the witchboy saw the vampire's vengeful smile. Or heard his words. "Yes...so do I. I've come to kill him. And the rest of you."

****


	3. Part Three:

My humblest, deepest thanks to the people who reviewed the last part; thank you so much! I loved hearing what you think! Thank you to: the mysterious :-), the wonderful Water Angel, the magnificent Millennia and the lovely Lisa ~ you're all amazing.

I would love and worship you if you could give feedback – it's adored, pored over, screamed with delight on a sight at, venerated, laminated, adulated, assimilated and fervently and slavishly worshipped! Please send it – I love hearing what you think and the encouragement makes me write faster (this actually surprised me…) Especially on this part!

Nightfire Part Three

As soon as he had shut the door, Cern Akafren looked up to find two pairs of eyes staring at him and the strange, mud-covered girl who was holding her maimed hand in a temporary torquinet. Explaining this one would be fun.

One pair were a deep shade of gold, filled with curiosity and permanent bad temper, belonging to the tall boy with the crow's wing hair whose sullen mouth was curled in a sardonic smile. Cougar Redfern looked every bit the moody, irritating vampire that he was. 

He could be cruel, vicious and crabbier than a seaside restaurant, but right now he was in his depressive missing-estranged-soulmate cycle of life and therefore a little more considerate than usual. And also why he was staying at Cern's house while Jepar Jubatus, the house's other inhabitant, had gone to visit friends in Vegas with his soulmate.

The other pair belonged to Thom Ausner. Nothing much surprised Cern's housemate and he just raised an eyebrow in the seen-it-all way of an Old Soul, elbowing Cougar out the way so they could get into the lounge. His hair, so pale that it was almost white, kept falling in his short-sighted eyes.

"Hi," said Cern breezily, watching their reactions. "Guess what...funny story." 

Now Cougar's golden eyes widened as he saw the girl's hand, his lips drawing back in a brief, surprised snarl. They were a mess, Cern admitted ruefully as he looked at the girl. A dozen dark clotted scratches that he could see, and probably more hidden under that skin of dirt. The missing finger and frightened eyes. 

A few minutes later, they were settled in the lounge with cups of steaming coffee. Black. Strong. Just how coffee should be. The girl eyed hers and didn't take a sip until they all had, curling her good hand protectively round the mug. It was peculiar, as if she'd never seen it. 

"Is it human? Is it a golem?" Thom shrugged, mouth curling with distaste. "Who can say?"

"It's a she, for a start," Cern informed him. Thom might be an Old Soul, but that didn't stop him being insensitive as hell at times. "And she's a werewolf. Though she doesn't like shifting much."

"Gods, Akafren," Cougar muttered. He was half-slumped on a chair, his striking face snapping with rare interest. Smoke drifted lazily from the cigarette he was holding. "What did we tell you about picking up strange women?"

"As I recall, bring us some back next time."

The vampire half-smiled. His eyes were on the girl and Cern wondered what the lamia was sensing with his honed senses. "You could have left this pretty thing on the road, Cern. She's wrong."

What? He made her sound like a math problem and Cern stared blankly."Wrong? What do you mean?"

Shrug. "I don't know. I just have this sense that something's...missing in her somewhere. Broken."

The girl looked from one to the other, the mud cracking in places like crazy paving. He pitied her, alone, unable to understand them. And the fear was plain to see in her face; the way the sound of their voice made her start each time. How if Thom or Cougar leaned forward, she cowered back where she was sitting. 

"She doesn't say much, does she?" murmured the lamia. "We don't bite, you know. Well...not right now."

"You're wasting your charm, Cougar," he said wearily. "She doesn't speak a word of English." 

"Hmm." The vampire leaned forward, classic features fixed in concentration. "Well, there's some stuff that goes past language barriers." He pointed to Thom, who was talking on the phone and said clearly, "Thom."

She looked at him blankly and he repeated the word. Then he motioned to the witch. "Cern."

She looked at them, then her mouth curved up fractionally. Her teeth were white, clean. Maybe the only part of her that was. "Jallakri."

"See?" Cougar looked smug. "She's called Jallakri. Pretty name, but will the lady be as lovely?"

Cern pointed at Cougar. "Moron." He winked at the girl as the vampire boy scowled.

She looked at him, frosted-apple eyes sharp as icicles. "Moron?" she said questioningly. 

It was impossible not to smile at Cougar's enraged glare. "Well, we need something to make us laugh. We can't look at you *all* the time," Cern drawled. He moved fast as a paperweight flew through the air and broke the window. 

The girl gasped in shock and fear, staring at the lamia. Her face was white as moonstone.

"You can pay for that," Thom said without looking over from the phone and carried on blithely. "...no, I wasn't talking to you." A pause. "Cougar. Cern was being smart, or maybe I mean stupid—" Cern raised an eyebrow and tapped an empty glass meaningfully. "—on second thoughts, I mean smart. Yeah. See you in a minute. No, you still need to use the door. There wasn't *that* much damage, Cougar's aim is too bad..."

"Are you done mocking me?" Cougar drawled in contrived exasperation. "What did the Elders say, anyway, Cern?" He yawned and stretched, looking like a darkly dangerous panther. 

"No magick for a moon." Cern snapped his fingers and added facetiously, "Alakazam. See, nothing."

"Then they sent you back to deal with the lovely Donna and friends?" He cracked his knuckles. Cougar and Donna had had more than one scrap. And she always came out of it worse. "Nice of them."

"Yeah, remind me to ring them and thank them for nearly sending me to an early demise." 

"That was Toya. She's coming to heal you two." Thom collapsed onto a chair. "Oh well," he said philosophically. "Could have been worse." 

"Really?" Cern said. The teeth marks in his legs *stung*. Not to mention the other cuts. "How?"

A corner of the Old Soul's mouth tipped up. "It could have been me."

****

"You were lucky," was Chatoya Irkil's verdict. Her slender, pale hands were careful as she bandaged Jallakri's mangled hand. "Goddess, Cern, what were you thinking? Taking on the Pack like that."

"She asked me for help," he protested. Toya smiled vaguely as murky green fire sparkled in her palms. Her face sweet and fresh, that of a dryad, though he would never tell her that. "What was I meant to do? Run?"

She sighed and sat back, cloudy swamp eyes placid. "It would have been smarter." 

"I thought we'd agreed that I was incurably stupid," Cern said wryly and leaned forward to ruffle the older girl's hair.

"Hey!" She frowned, though there was no anger in it, patting down stray strands "Touch not the hair!"

He gave her a lazy smile. "I'll agree, there are other parts of you I'd far rather touch." She flushed, much to his private amusement. 

The wolf-girl had cleaned up very unusual; the mud had turned out to hide a warm bronzed skin and long gold hair that, once freed from its rattails, fell down her back with a slight wave at the ends. Her chin was pointed as a cat's, setting off the pale green eyes that still held a glacial, wary glow to them. It had taken half an hour before they could persuade her to let Toya heal her. 

But that wasn't the weirdest thing; Jallakri had a bright red streak that shot down her gilt tresses on the right side. And it hadn't washed out.

"So have you tried to talk to her?" Toya said, accepting some coffee from Cougar with a grateful sigh. She choked and put a hand to her throat. "Gods, Cou, just how Irish *is* this coffee?"

The vampire shrugged morosely. "It's purer than my blood, babe. 'Cause while late nights are my speciality, I figured you set with the sun. And we can't talk to her – the chica doesn't speak English."

"Have you tried telepathy?" 

The boys exchanged glances. "No," they chorused. 

Toya rolled her eyes, sooty hair flying as she shook her head."Men!" she muttered, disgusted. "Always got to do it the hard way." She glared. "And stop grinning like that! It was a perfectly innocent comment."

"Well," Cern said, looking at Cougar. He thought the vampire looked older than he ought; the lamia's relationship with his soulmate was coming apart at the seams. "You're our resident telepath." 

****

She had been watching them. Their world was so *different*. The house made of material she had never seen before and their looks. As if everyone had bathed in a rainbow river, with different eyes and hair, strange clothes that glowed with intense colours...it was amazing. Dazzling.She was shocked silent. 

And then there had been the boy. The blue haired one. Jal shivered. He hadn't smelled good, no, not at all. Her sense of smell had been honed in her years of sleep. 

Sleep. That was what she had to call it, wasn't it? But there was no word for the terror and the darkness and how she had fallen for endless years in that place, caged in the depths of her own mind. And she had found it more horrific and cold than the blackest ocean.

But him...her mind kept returning to him, as if pulled by a magnet she could never outmatch. He had smelled of the winter, sharp and fresh but under that, there had been something else. The sickly sweetness of something that was dying and rotting, heady and even a little intoxicating.

He knew me, she thought uneasily. I saw it when he looked at me. But his eyes had held only loathing and an awful blankness. No mercy, no pity, no compassion. Only time stretching out a skeletal hand.

~ Hey, gorgeous. Can you understand me? ~ The voice jumped into her head like a crackling fire. A picture formed; the black haired boy, the one with the spitting stare and melting smile, so akin to Kaajen yet with something infinitely innocent in his eyes, despite his glowering face. The fallen angel.

~ I...how are you doing that? ~ 

A cool laugh, the sense of sour oranges smouldering. ~ I can talk mind to mind. I'm from the Nightworld. ~ His mind opened a little, guardedly and from it Jal understood what this 'Nightworld' was, something fatal and corrupted, like a cobra slinking through a mire. And that he was a boy who was something else...like...like...Kaajen. Her mind darted away quickly. ~ So are you. ~

~ I'm a human, ~ she informed him. ~ Not Nightworld. ~

~ No, ~ he corrected firmly. ~ You're a werewolf. I'm a vampire and we're both Nightworld. You don't believe me? Typical. Well, it's true and I'll take you to that flea-bitten Pack and they *know* their own. ~ 

She could sense his mind changing track, smooth as stones clicking. ~ You...don't remember, do you? ~ 

~ No...almost nothing, ~ Jal answered. She couldn't hide her grief and felt this stranger's awkward pity. He understood; a kind of pain glimmered blackly in him. ~ How can you talk to me? Our languages differ. ~

A pause, velvet puzzlement. ~ I think...well, I'm not so hot on explaining but telepathy sort of goes past all that. But you can learn to speak my language if you want, just take it out of my head. ~ 

A little hesitation - he didn't relish the thought of her seeing his mind.

She accepted the offer, felt time pass as she absorbed what he knew, what he let her see, and decided that she liked this peculiar boy. His psyche was shuttered and shied away from her, as if someone had hurt him deeply, but she could relate to that. Something about his...soulmate?

The word seemed familiar...had she met one? Was she one? Hadn't there been a desert, and a promise sealed in sorrow...? Awful fear struck her hard and the memory slid away. But oh god, even forgetting hurt.

~ Thank you, ~ she said finally, when she had recovered. He hadn't noticed her lapse. Good. 

Jal opened her eyes.

The mahogany haired guy who had brought her here was watching television. Even though she knew what it was now, it astounded her. As she stretched cramped muscles, wincing a little at the pain in her hand, he looked round and smiled cautiously.

"I didn't have the chance to thank you," she said in his language and was surprised how easy it was to speak. And it was a beautiful tongue, full of liquid sounds and livid words. Almost music.

Those extraordinary purple eyes narrowed, then he recovered. "It was my pleasure. I'm Cern Akafren." A languid half-lift of his mouth. "Short for Cernunnos. Why were the Pack chasing you?"

She hesitated. Why had they hunted her? Maybe simply because she was there. Animals didn't need reasons. They lived on instinct. "I—"

"Cern," Cougar had gotten up and was walking around gingerly. She guessed his long legs, like hers, had gone dead. Pain tingles were inching up her body and she squirmed, trying to move into a more comfortable position. "She's got amnesia. And you know what those Pack bastards are like."

"So is she here to stay?" asked the boy. She had gleaned from Cougar's mind that Cern was a witch. Jal stared and wondered how anyone so innocuous could hide power that burned and killed. 

Cougar shrugged. "Looks like it. You want to stay here?" he asked her and smiled a little. It was dark, but appealing too. Jal couldn't help but beam back and wonder how anyone had ever managed to hurt him. "I got to admit, for a bolthole, it ain't too bad. Acres to hunt in...necks to bite..."

"Vampires to stake," Cern said lightly, ignoring the slit-eyed glare that earned him. His face was unreadable and Jal felt an urge to know what thoughts were simmering behind that enigmatic face. There was something undeniably tantalizing about him. Maybe it was the air of mystery, or the unexpectedly endearing way he would smile shyly and look away, a mannerism that utterly belied his laidback attitude.

"But dozens of ways to live," the vampire finished, blatantly ignoring the comment. "And die."

The mahogany-haired boy shrugged, his voice wry. "Yeah, but we're all still here. Our friends will probably adore you." A critical stare. "You're smart. You survived the Pack. You have a lot going for you."

She stood unsure. Her past already haunted her. She didn't want it to disturb them, too and from what Jal understood of amnesia from Cougar, it might. Something inside her wondered why she had wanted to forget it so badly. Forget everything except odd flickers of a desert night and endless pain.

"Cou's right, you'll like it here." The healer girl came back in, carrying cans of soft drinks. "You know you and Cougar were talking for five hours? And anyone new's welcome. As long as you have no insane ex-lovers, demented sisters, cults, assassins or vengeful friends after you."

"Shut up!" Cougar said indignantly. "You *know* Ria couldn't help that demented sister." 

She set the cans down and poked the vampire playfully while he glared. "That soulmate of yours knew a lot more than she ever told you, Cougar hon." 

So close. Comfortable with each other in a way Jal had never known. She had no family. She had no friends. And once she had tried to change that hadn't she? She had... But the memory had flown.

"Are you okay over there?" A soothing voice roused her from the ghosts of times past. The witch, Cern, didn't smile but looked sombre, making her uneasy. Could he read her mind? "Only a little," he answered.

Jal gasped and tried to throw up walls in her head. It didn't work though; the sheer panic left her shaking. Oh *god*, what else would he see? Would he know what had happened to her? She didn't want him to see the paralysing fear and blackness that lay at the very back of her mind. And the things that were buried, that she couldn't remember but that made her body tense even trying to.

"It's okay," he said gently. "Really. I didn't mean to startle you. You just thought that one *very* loudly."

"Cern?" Chatoya glowered at him sternly. Even in anger, her mouth stayed soft and serene. "She's a *guest*. And I thought you couldn't read minds very well..." 

"Leave off, Toya." The amethyst eyes returned to Jal briefly and she thought she saw a flicker of apology. The mellow tones comforted her somewhat. "I didn't mean to. She just had interesting thoughts. Sorry."

"Don't worry, Jal," Cougar's dark tones purred. "Cern doesn't get to experience thought very often. You probably startled him." He ducked as the witch threw an empty can. "See, you can't aim either, Akafren."

Chatoya grinned at Jal and the friendliness there surprised her. They seemed to accept her so effortlessly. And they wouldn't if they knew, that insidious little voice inside her said. They wouldn't if they knew.... Knew what? Jal searched her mind but the idea had fled. The dread it had left behind did not.

"Are you sure you want to stay in a house with this lot?" Chatoya said humorously. "They can't cook, they can't clean and I think all of them believe that unless a door's locked, it's okay for them to walk in." 

"Where else is she going to go?" demanded Cougar hotly. "Tali's swanned off with Jep, Ria..." his eyes dropped, "doesn't need company right now. You and Lisa have no room in that dinky little flat the pair of you call home. And Ruby...let's just say I've met saner megalomaniacs."

"I suppose. Just...don't eat *anything* they cook, okay?"

Jal smiled. It felt good. Finally there was something she could be certain about in a world that seemed to hold too many possibilities. "I'll try."

****

"Welcome to Ryars Valley High School," Chatoya said later that day. "We got in touch with the Elders and they weren't too pleased that you'd arrived without them knowing - they don't like being outwitted. But they signed you up for some classes. We're a little late…" It was early afternoon and they had obviously arrived in the middle of lunch. "But I'm sure—"

"Chatoya!" 

The witch spun, groaning as if she didn't care much for whoever was calling her. 

"That's Ruby," she explained. "I have to go and discuss a project with her. Just wander. Head into the cafeteria and pick up some food. The guys will be around somewhere." She walked over to the girl.

Jal stared curiously at the girl who had shouted, a waiflike face framed by short, shiny cherry hair. Not the fiery shade that some here had, but a deep hue of crimson reminded her uneasily of something. Gone was the friendliness she had seen in Chatoya's face; in those alien eyes, she saw cold crimson fire.

Jal dropped her eyes. She had no wish to be burnt. The cafeteria, then. Where was that? *What* was that? She looked round, trying to see where people were going. The sun hurt her eyes, painfully hot and intense and she mentally thanked Chatoya for lending her some light clothes that were far more suitable than the tattered rags she had been wearing. 

The sounds crowded in on her; dozens chatting and laughing in all tones of the scale. Colours everywhere, blazing like flags. One or two glanced at her and she nearly froze in panic. Hundreds of people, strangers who might be, might be...the thought dropped into the dark and she didn't chase it. She couldn't.

"Goddess," Jal whispered to herself, hands clasping and unclasping together as she was caught between awe and fear. Hearing her own voice hammered in the reality. "There's so many of them."

"It's almost like being in a nightmare, isn't it?" a deadly soft voice inquired. Before she could move away, alarmed, a hand caught her arm with startling force. Not enough to hurt, but to keep her there. "You needn't run. I feel no need to bite. Yet." 

The impossibly blue eyes of the boy who had rescued them from the wolves last night stared back. The emptiness there chilled her. Drowning in his stare would be so easy, just to fall into the darkness there and keep falling. And then she understood why he scared her so. The shadows that lurked in her deepest fears leapt out from his face. Someone else who had been touched by pain, by grief, by blood. I'm running away from my own fears, she realised with a pang of shock and relief. That's all it is. 

"I haven't thanked you yet," she said, looking up at him. Now that she knew why he worried her, the power the horror had over her dissipated in the light. "I'd have been dead if you hadn't shot that wolf."

He smiled then, but it was cold as a corpse's hand. "And it's such a short fall to the shadows, isn't it?"

She froze. For those words were struck into her soul with a brand hotter than any the earth held. They were the words of a man who she had summoned across the world. The words of a man whose babe she had once carried. The words of the man who had tortured her and killed their child.

And he was alive.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I would love to hear from you!


	4. Part Four

Thank you to: Cece, Ria, Water Angel, and :o) (Yeah, that's where the spelling cmae from :-) I liked it!)

Anything you have to say would be adored and slavishly worshipped. Go on, get into the Christmas spirit…

Hugs n' honey,

Ki

Nightfire Part Four

Oh god. Oh god. He was alive. The man who had tortured her, who had held her soul in his hands and wrenched it apart was *here*.

Then the cold numbness seemed to flow over her mind and her muscles simply gave, as if the control of her motor senses had been snatched away by the shock. The patchy green and brown of the ground filled her eyes and she was sure she would hit it, falling like a broken doll...

He caught her. 

And Jal was twisted upright, forced to stare into eyes that were blue as the moon's halo at midnight, impossible, impenetrable blue. She blinked, trying to clear her head, to understand why his hands were wrapped around her upper arms. His face...god, the same. Kaajen to the life. To the death.

"You're alive," she croaked.

"Wrong." The blue-haired boy's strange, cold eyes bored into hers. "Kaajen mal Ifiche died long ago, as *you* should know. But the Nightfire Temple remains, little Jallakri. And so do his descendants." He leaned closer. "You know, for someone who's hitting ten thou, your skin is remarkably wrinkle-free."

And then he laughed and let go of her. 

Ten thousand? Ten *thousand*? Insane, she thought. He has to be.

"No," the boy murmured. His smile was utterly charming. "You'd be amazed how many have thought that, but I'm afraid I still have all synapses functioning correctly, despite the best efforts of...well, everyone I've ever met."

"What do you want?"

She was afraid, but her curiosity ate at her like a disease, taking slow, almost painless little bites, but killing her all the same. He knew her. He knew her, but how? Who was she? Surely he couldn't be as old?

"Seventeen." That voice that held arctic swells. One eyebrow arched as she flinched.

Her pale eyes met his and danced away in fear. "Stop reading my mind." 

"Dear lady..." he murmured archly, leaning in to touch the tip of her nose with one light finger. "Surely it is not a good idea to be so uncivil to the only person who knows what you are."

I want to know. I have to know. I cannot live forever in this blankness. I cannot spend my life walking in the desert of my mind, but he is so cold, so wrong. 

"I..." she hesitated. But what harm could it do to ask? "Will you tell me?"

"For a price," he allowed, and looked amused as she shrank away. "Not *that*. Why does every woman I meet here think that the only way they'll fall at my feet is if I knock them out?"

He wasn't really talking to her; Jal could see a brief distance in him, a thoughtful look that softened his mouth and for a moment, made those topaz eyes light with laughter. Stunning, she thought. But then he shook his head slightly and his eyes focused. And he was not stunning, but chilling.

"What do you want then?" she asked, trying not to back away or show her confusion and fear. 

A shrug. "To learn. Isn't that why we're all here?" His tones were oddly confident for someone so young.

"What do you know?" she said, looking up into that detached, almost dreamy face and understanding nothing of how he thought. "Please, if you know something of me, tell me."

"I know that what sleeps in you is eager to awake," he said softly, voice low and intimate. "I can feel it now, wanting the blood, the joy. It's rising to the surface...I wonder how long you can keep it contained?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," she said, but his words sent a slim chill wriggling to her limbs. 

A quirk of his mouth. "Of course. That's because you're shockingly unintelligent. The best slaves are."

"I serve no one." She ignored the insult. 

He ducked his head close to hers when someone walked by, lips brushing her cheekbone as he whispered into her ear. "But you killed many."

She jerked away, seeing only the cryptic glitter in his eyes before she felt the pressure of his hands on her waist, sprawling across her spine to remind her that she could be broken very easily. One touch. One move.

"You lie."

"Frequently, but not about the important matters." He stared down at this golden-skinned creature who had defiance and fear mingling in her eyes. Her power was like something moving under dark water. Visible only as a sinister ripple, a flash of shining surface. "You are as much a killer as I. And part of Nightfire."

A wrench and she had pulled herself free, the red streak that swiped down her hair seeming to glow. "I am no part of that atrocity. Nor have I been for forty thousand years." The coral mouth trembling, her fear rampant in every gesture, every look. Lovely. Deceptive. Deadly.

Jal tried not to notice the cold pressure of his stare, the perfect stillness, but something in her wanted only to run. To run far and fast and never to look back in case he was there, or worse, in case he was not.

"Believe that if you must. But when I call...the darkness will answer."

She caught an image from his head suddenly, one so starkly cut she was sure it had to be real.

A full moon, hanging bloated in the sky and edged with crimson. 

Below it, something that snarled and contorted, and fought with a bundle of white grace that tried to fly, beating frantically with its wings before it was dragged down. A crack, and the white creature collapsed so she could see it was the languid body of a swan, dead and drooping. A glimpse of jagged teeth, a blast of fetid breath before the thing buried its head into the throat, snuffling and twisting.

She forced her eyes open, her heart beating in petrified tumult.

"You cannot disobey the call of blood magick," the boy said calmly. She stared at his arresting face and saw nothing there that was remotely human. "When I call, it will answer."

"No!" she said, shaking her head and backing away. "I will never answer."

He looked at her and smiled slowly. Her eyes opened, wider and wider until her lashes were plastered against her skin like black lace as she stared at him. At the fangs, revealed glint by glint in the pounding, heavy sunlight, as carven as ivory but unmistakably the mark of a predator. 

Even his face seemed to transform, thinning somehow so every bone was distinct and so the tail-comet ice in his eyes danced and leapt like shattering glass. Blue in his eyes, and in his hair, and in his heart. 

"Who said anything about you?" he asked softly and left.

****

Lisa Ochai sighed contentedly and sat, rolling her shoulders in the warm sunlight that beat down on them all. Her dark skin shone with health and she looked her usual striking self in black denim cut-offs and a glaring lime top that Cern had seen most of the girls in the school fail to pull off, except in the literal sense.

"I love summer," she said exuberantly. "You know what the best thing about it is?"

"Girls in bikinis?" offered Cern, the hints of a wicked smile on his mouth. She swatted her hand at him. 

"Girls not in bikinis?" Cougar Redfern said from the other side of the table from where he was indulging his latest addiction – Lilt. He stretched, muscles rippling briefly, and settled back into an indolent heap.

"No!" she said in disgust. "Butter."

Cern and Cougar swapped confused looks. "What the hell do you mean, butter?" the lamia demanded.

She cast a conspiratorial glance at Cern and he grinned back. He was used to her oddness and loved the way she could confuse an entire roomful of people with one word. Today, she only had Cougar and him to practise on, and though they had known her for three years, the success rate was still one hundred percent.

"Well," Lisa, who was a philosopher, said, "me and Toya keep the butter in the fridge, right?"

"I can see how this relates to summer," murmured Cern, who was not. The glare he received could have flattened a tiger from fifty paces.

"Listen – you're so impatient! Anyway, when it's summer, it actually spreads straight from the fridge. And when it's winter, you need an ice pick if you want anything on your bagels. See?"

"How is that the best part of summer?" a baffled Cougar said. "Unless I'm missing some kind of coy meaning for bagels... It's a bonus, yeah, but there are better things." Wicked smile. "Way better things."

"I'll bet," Lisa replied with a touch of dourness. "Well, maybe it's just me."

"I hope so," said Cern wryly. "If there are more of you straight-from-the-fridge maniacs out there, I don't want to meet them." Grinning, he pretended to cower from her glare. Her summer madness was adorable.

"Is that our latest?" a bored Cougar asked, squinting across the campus. "The golden babe?"

Cern glanced over, recognising that fearful, wondering gaze. "Yup." He put his hands to his mouth. "Hey! Jal!" She spun and waved as she saw them, began to hurry over, more relief than anything in her face.

"I couldn't see you," she explained in accented tones, pallid under the soft gold of her skin. "I...got lost."

Her pale green eyes met his briefly. And in the crystalline depths, beyond her relief was fear. Fear and—

A full moon, a slash of crimson blood, a dreadful howl and then clawing agony in his head.

His hands slammed to his head, eyes crushing shut and the pain was gone.

"Cern!" Lisa had reached over; her hands cool to pry his hands away from his temples. "Are you okay? Is it the migraines again? I thought they'd gone."

Migraines. Yeah. That was the excuse he had always used, wasn't it? "No," he said through gritted teeth as the last of the ache seeped away, Lisa's touch a soothing balm. "They always come back."

And they did. They always did.

It was in the blood.

****

"When is Jay going to be back?" Ruby was demanding. It was odd, Chatoya thought, that someone who looked so delicate and sensitive should be so bitter. "I miss him! And I know he misses me."

Yes, because Jepar always develops a strange attachment to people who push bombs through his letterbox. "Tomorrow," she said with a drop of weariness. There was no point arguing with Ruby. "He and Alisha—"

"Her," Ruby cut her off darkly, moving mechanically forward in the lunch queue. "He doesn't love her. Just because they're soulmates. You don't have to love your soulmate..."

"Most do," she said. She was trying to be gentle with Ruby. Goddess knew the made vampire had been through enough, but her craving for Jepar Jubatus, the sunny shapeshifter, had got out of hand long ago.

"Well, I know Jay!"

You know jack about him, she wanted to say. And it's not Jay, it's Jepar. You've known the poor guy for what, six months, and already managed to turn into his stalker. It won't work, he's madly in love with Alisha, they're *soulmates* and you tried to kill him in a variety of extremely creative ways because you were jealous, and I really *don't* think he appreciated being electrocuted with the toaster, by the way, but you still want him, and you're actually *surprised* he's turning you down. And given up toast.

What she said was: "So do I."

Ruby's scarlet lips pursing. "Yeah, you do." Sudden sharpness in her; when Jepar was the subject, Ruby suddenly snapped out of her drifting state of mind. "It won't last, will it? Will it?"

Chatoya opened her mouth to answer, her patience flying out the window.

Hands closing round her waist, spinning her round and someone kissing her hard.

"Miss me, sweetheart?" a voice said lightly and she recovered to look into hooded eyes that seemed to stretch into infinity, if infinity was a blazing blue lagoon that was filled with serene, removed amusement.

For a moment her mind fell away, too horrified to notice what was wrong, to horrified to even think anything but the one word that circled round and round her head. 

Him.

Him. With his hands on her waist and that bladed smile cutting at her, and those cold, cold eyes dropping away like the edge of a cliff. Waiting for her to fall and hit the ground below. With his blue hair spiky, a silver lightning bolt through one eyebrow, and that knowing, satisfied expression.

Him. The killer of her friend, the killer of her twin, her parents, nearly herself. Him. Her soulmate.

So clever, to make it seem like a reunion.People were staring. Ruby was staring, her face oddly pale – shock? But they were smiling too. Thinking oh-how-sweet, it-must-be-love. But no, no, no, never that.

"Oh Goddess!" she said and then tried to wrench out of his grip. "Let go of me!"

Blue Malefici had changed, she was realising. The face had altered subtly and if it was possible, he was even more breathtakingly beautiful than before. "What? When it's been so long?"

She slammed her knee up quickly and found his leg in the way. 

"So predictable," he said with a languorous sigh. Speaking so no one else could hear, startlingly intimate and unbelievably frightening. "Still. But my, you've grown. Do you still taste as good, I wonder?"

Her hand flew out.

He caught it, turned her palm over and traced her life-line. "Long as your hair," he remarked idly. Those eyes narrowed into electric slits and fear shot up her spine like an icy arrow. "But not as long as your life." 

"I'm stronger now. I *won't* be intimidated by you." 

"Oh, come on," he said, his voice purring and caressing and promising a thousand things she was sure she didn't want. "You already are, witch of mine. You just hide the truth from yourself. Like you always have."

"Get away from me!" she hissed and let just a tiny bit of witch power nudge him. It would burn like acid.

The world seemed to jolt, his blue eyes fearfully close and then she realised he had picked her up in his arms, but had her in an extremely tight grip that struggling didn't seem to ease. "We need to talk," he drawled and then started to walk. She could hear wolf-whistles and laughter and shocked chatter, but no one stopping them, stopping this venomous piece of evil carrying her away.

She managed to wrench an arm free of that intimate hold and tried to dig her fingernail into the base of his. 

"Try that again, sweetheart," he said in a voice only she could hear, "And I'll bite your bloody hand off."

She believed him.

****

"So..." Cern Akafren smiling at her with those deep, dark eyes that were velvet as an indigo evening. Still looking wan from whatever had happened. For a moment, Jal had thought she felt something, a sort of tingle in her chest, but then he had gasped and clutched his hands to his head. "You got lost, huh?"

"Bad luck," she said. It was half-true. For only horrifying luck had cast her as a pawn in a lawless, bloodthirsty game. Her mind still rattled with that brief, horrifying memory of the dark-filled abyss.

"You okay?" A faint, quizzical frown. "You look...shaky."

"Snap," the drawling, clipped voice of Cougar put in. There was something *familiar* about him. As if... "It's nice to see things back to their usual state of knee-trembling fear. I missed knowing my life was hanging by a thread." 

Jal wanted to sit down and pour her heart out to the two boys who had been so kind to her yesterday, but there was a strange girl sitting nearby and—

"Oh, you would," the strange girl put in impatiently. There was that same aura of power around her as there was around the other two. Something a little unnatural about the husky, strong voice and quick movements as she looked up at Jal. "That one's a classic male chauvinist and he's corrupting all of them."

The moment passed. Her secret stayed silent, in the darkness of her heart, not in this sunlit place.

"Jal, this is Lisa Ochai." Cern motioned for her to sit down, some colour creeping back into his face. "She's a made vampire and she's itching to draw you, knowing her."

She blinked. "Draw me?"

"She's a bit of an artist, is our Lise." He slanted a fond look at the girl. Jal was startled to see something in Lisa's face light up. She likes him, Jal realised. She likes him a lot. And he doesn't know. 

"Not necessarily a good one," Cougar dropped in. "She got me all wrong."

"Yeah, because you aren't at all a moody, sulky son-of-a—" 

"Guys!" The shrill voice cut through her head like a knife. Jal saw Cern wince, briefly rubbing his temples. 

"Oh god," Cougar muttered. "Kill me now. It's Ruby."

Jal looked over. The girl, her short hair flickering like ferns in a gale and her odd red eyes, was running towards them, with her fragile face dominated by her dark, pouting mouth that shouted words at them.

"What?" Lisa held up a hand as the girl reached them. "I can't hear a word—"

Ruby's face was ashen, and Jal noticed her hands were trembling. "It's Toya... You won't *believe* it. We w-were in the lunch queue and she was raving about Jay, like she always d-does, and then *he* j-just came up to her and k-kissed her and then he carried her off! And he's b-back and he's...more powerful."

Lisa blinked. "Ru? Slow down. Who carried her off? I didn't know Toya had met anyone...guys?"

Jal saw only curiosity in Cern's face. "Haven't noticed, truth to tell."

"Big surprise there when you and Amanda Talver are joined at the hip," drawled Cougar, baring his teeth briefly. "Don't think anyone here doesn't know about your Friday night frolicking."

Cern looked amused. "At the lip, actually."

"Not from where I was standing."

"Yeah? Well, from where I was lying, it was a different story. Unfortunately." Cern saw Jal's curious gaze on him and shut up. "Anyway...Toya's got herself a friend?"

"You're not listening!" Ruby shrieked, her nails digging into the table. Jal gasped as every fingernail snapped off, leaving the red-haired girl's hands a bleeding mess. "It's him, he's back!"

All of them were staring at her flour-white face, seeing the shivers that shook every part of her body. 

"Ruby?" Gently Cern reached out to touch her hands. A purple spark leapt and the wounds were healed. 

She looked at Cougar Redfern then, her eyes a hooded, haunted red. "Don't you know?" she asked in a scarce-heard whisper. "Can't you *sense* it?"

He looked at her, then something flickered in his face. "Oh god," he said. "Oh god, he kept his promise."

"Who?" Cern said with almost exasperation. "What are you on about?"

Cougar's eyes had an odd, dead look in them. His lips barely moved. "Blue," he said. "Blue."

****

Comments? Thoughts? I'd love to hear what you think…


	5. Part Five

Thank you everyone who commented :-) I loved, loved, loved hearing from you! Thank you to: Millennia, ME, Phoenix girl, Gaali-vi, Dead Flower, Ice Princess,- you are *amazing*! Thank you a thousand times over.

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Nightfire Part Five

"Blue? What?" Cern was obviously as confused as Jal felt. "Did I miss something? Like a noun?"

"Blue is my little brother," Cougar said briefly. Jal wanted to shrink away from the fury that turned his eyes from gold to pure streaming sunlight. "He's...wrong."

The witch boy sighed. "Oh, and I was worried you were going to be vague about this. Do I get any more explanation than that? Lisa?" His warm gaze flicked to Jal, sharing his confusion. Something so simple, but she was astonished at how glad she felt. "Ruby?"

"All the explanation you need is in your back garden," the tribal girl whispered. The other girl; Ruby, with her pretty, soulful eyes and dark red hair, simply shuddered and covered her face with her hands.

"Buried in your back garden," amended Cougar. Cold rage had seeped into his ravishingly sensual voice, poisoning him like slow-burning acid. It scared Jal. Anger she could handle, but icy, still wrath like this reminded her horribly of Kaajen. Of the hurt and the darkness and her own voice screaming endlessly.

"He killed the goldfish?"

There was dead silence, then something relaxed in the lovely tribal girl. "I wish. That was Jepar." 

"He killed Flipper?" Cern looked mildly surprised. "He might have said. So what has this Blue guy done?"

Both of them hesitated, and Jal saw a flicker of sadness cross Cougar's savage face. 

"He killed Sonj," he informed quietly. "You never knew her...she died a few months before you ever turned up. She was a half-breed and that was why Blue killed her. Because she wasn't *pure*." 

"You're a half-breed too," Lisa said suddenly. Devastating fear leapt from her eyes and Jal understood with a start; she cared for Cern. A lot. Jal turned her gaze on Cern. Did he know? No. "What if—"

"Another half-breed hunter?" Cern said and even laughed. "Guys, I've been dealing with them since I was born. I can handle it."

"Not Blue," Cougar said, shaking his head. Pitch hair fell across his pale skin. "He's different. You can't reason with him. You can't fight him. You don't have a hope in hell of killing him." 

"So...general wailing and gnashing of teeth then?" murmured Cern. "Truly that bad?"

"Truly." Lisa's low, strong voice didn't shake and neither did her gaze. But the sorrow still sighed in her eyes like ghosts of yesterday.

"He was the one who..." Ruby was speaking, her crimson eyes shadowed and her voice thin and scared. "He told the Elders about Cougar changing me. He...talked to me. He said...things." 

From her face, Jal guessed that it wasn't so much what this boy had said, but what he had done. Blue. What an odd, innocent name for someone who inspired such fear. Blue. The colour of skies, of seawater, of gems. One word that could bring people to their knees, pleading for mercy to someone who had none.

"And he promised he'd come back," Cougar declared hollowly. The proud face was pale as winter clouds, so pale Jal thought that if she touched him, her fingers might leave a mark. "Because of..." 

His head snapped up and he and the tribal girl were staring at each other in pure, blind dread. "No..." the girl breathed, her terror brandished by that alarmingly honest stare. "Gods, no..."

"Guys?" Cern looking from one to the other, frowning. "Are you okay?"

"Look after Jal. We have to find Toya." The lamia boy leapt to his feet, rummaging in his bag. What he produced was a sleek burgundy stake and a honed blade that he held with perfect confidence. That alluring face had hardened indefinably, hard with old aches and new hate.

"Toya?" Concern, softening the witch boy. It hurt her to look at their closeness and see she was only on the fringes, looking into these people who drew together like strands of a strong, gleaming web. "Why?"

"Don't worry about it," Lisa told him briefly, and then the two were gone.

Cern let out his breath in a sigh. "Great. Not another dark, mysterious secret." He glanced at Jal. "Got any you'd like to confess, while we're here?"

She shook her head quickly, remembering what that strange cold boy had said to her earlier. The one with the blue hair and blue eyes and—him? He was this...Blue? She shuddered and didn't notice the way Cern's eyes narrowed. He had killed a girl...and he wanted to hurt Jal.

Goddess protect me, she thought. No one else will.

****

Chatoya was held utterly passive by fear as the boy, who she refused to think about even in nightmares, carried her into an empty room and kicked the door shut. He put her down almost carefully. He had been carved, this creature of elegance and wildness, carved into a killer and a monster cloaked in mere beauty.

"Now," he said calmly. "I think we need to get one or two things straight."

She backed away from him, fast. Her mind was shrieking that something was wrong, something was desperately wrong, but she couldn't think what. 

"There's a cupboard in the corner if you'd like to go and cower in it," that hypnotic voice drawled and she could feel the dark crawling through it like sly vipers. "But you will listen to me and you will obey me."

Arrogant, cold-blooded bastard. As always, he set her blood ablaze with his wintry superiority. "What gives you the right to waltz in here again? In case you've forgotten, you can't kill me—"

"Oh, please." He cut her off, his distant stare hard. "Do you really think I'd come back here for *you*?"

She had absolutely no reply for that. 

"And what gives me the right to 'waltz in here again' is the fact that I am here on business. Nightfire business. And you will not interfere. You will stay out of my way and I will stay out of yours. The fact you are my soulmate is an incidental. Nothing more. *You* are an incidental."

Nightfire. He had mentioned that name three years ago, in passing. And the passage of Bane Maelfici left only destruction and ravages in its wake. 

"I will *not* be dictated to by you."

He smiled, that slight, feral curve of his mouth that said; I am something very dangerous. I will not hesitate to use and torment you – and we both know it. "You will. Maybe I can't hurt you, but you seem rather attached to your friends. I won't hesitate to hurt them."

"Have you been watching me?" she asked in disbelief.

A sigh that sounded more amused than anything. "Yes. I can't keep away from you. I've become quite the voyeur in my spare time." Those boundless blue eyes locked with hers, speaking only an ancient tongue of coldness and slaughter. Again, that feeling of wrongness somewhere flickered in her gut. "No, I have better things to do than watch the machinations of your attempt at a life. For a girl who was born part of the Nightworld, you are amazingly naïve of how it works. There's always someone who can be bought." 

"Who?" she said angrily.

"Don't worry about it," he told her. "They had an unfortunate accident."

The question slipped out before she could stop it. "What?"

"They tried to bargain with me." That serpentine smile again, making a mouth that should have been soft and sensual nothing but another weapon, another mirror of his empty, merciless mind. "I don't haggle."

No, she thought, because that would be normal and reasonable and you are neither of those things. Then she saw the way his gaze had slithered to her throat. There was something dreamy, desiring in his look and as he took an easy step forward, her stomach contracted in disquiet.

"What are you doing?" she said, retreating. His blistering stare had moved to her mouth and her throat instantly went dry.

A step forward, graceful and slinking as a snake given feet. "Wondering what you taste like."

"What I what?" He was serious, lips half-parted to show glinting fangs, eyes full of thick, wistful craving.

"Foolish, isn't it?" Another pace forward, and she was moving back, as far away from him as she could get. "But three years on, and I see this creature before me who is far too tempting and sweet to resist."

"I think you have the wrong girl," she said tightly. She was backed up to the wall. Damn.

"I know I have the right girl." Still walking forward in that easy, boneless glide. Every motion screaming monster, every nuance of his voice filled with velvet darkness and power. "Aren't you at all curious?"

"No."

"Liar." He said it softly, his eyes widening slightly, then he was only a metre away, and it was far too close and far too far at the same time.

"Murderer," she flung back. It was the first thing she could thing of, and for a second, she saw that tiny ring of gold around his iris grow to swallow the blue.

"Correct. But enough labels." The wall cold on her back, utterly ungiving as he stepped within inches and let one finger trail down her cheekbone. She could feel the gentle heat from his body, the scent of the winter's first snow drowning her frail senses. Flinching away, she finally realised what was wrong.

There was no soulmate link.

"What...how did you do it?" she whispered, more afraid than ever because she had no hope of shattering that diamond-cold control, no hope of stopping him from killing her if he wanted. "Why?"

"I wanted to. I needed to." One hand curled around the back of her neck, the other pushing back her hair with a touch light as butterflies' feet. She was very aware that he held her life in his hands. "I did."

A little sideways tilt of his head and she knew he was going to bite her. "Don't." It sounded so pitiful, thin and fear-filled. "Leave me alone."

"Is that really what you want?" His breath tickling her skin, the only warmth that he would ever give.

"Yes."

He let go and her water-filled knees gave. She would have grabbed something to stop her, but the only thing to cling to was him and Chatoya was damned if she'd touch her stunning, corrupt soulmate.

Hands under her elbows caught her before she got close to hitting the ground. "You can be very stubborn."

"Well, you can be a vicious murderer," she said as coldly as she could, aware of that little tremor that wouldn't quite disappear and that made her even angrier. "How about we call it quits?"

"Is that what you call it nowadays?" A lazy, amused smile she had never seen on him before that was shockingly disarming. "Oh, don't look so puzzled. Am I not allowed a sense of humour?"

"You're allowed one. You simply don't have one," she said tightly, unable to escape the piercing daggers of those phenomenal eyes that seemed to trail off into cold infinity. Were those stars glittering so minutely, so perfectly in his soulless pupil? A galaxy in his stare, and a vortex in his soul. "Now let go of me."

He let go and she was surprised and did hit the floor.

"Falling at my feet?" A little flick of his eyebrows and then he bared his teeth for an instant. "It may be the first time, but it won't be the last. See you around."

She didn't see him leave, because she had her hands over her eyes, trying to block out the reality of what happened. Slumped against a wall with her legs to her chest and her hands to her face, she tried to deny it.

But it was true.

****

"Do you want to talk about it?" Cern said mildly. His eyes were unreadable, that startling shade of purple she had never seen before. Beside him, Ruby was regaining her control slowly, one hand clutched around Cern's. He didn't seem to mind, despite the blood the girl's nails left.

"Talk about what?" 

"Your deep dark secret." As she opened her mouth to protest, he held up a hand. "Don't lie to me, please. I know when people lie. Something's upset you, and...I felt something when I looked at you."

"Indigestion?" she said, unable to stop herself. The comment was utterly unlike her; it was so...mean.

A smile. "You spent too long in Cougar's mind. That's a Redfern remark if ever I heard one."

She flushed, embarrassed at being so callous, embarrassed that she had to lie. It should have come easier to her. She had spent so long lying to Kaajen—the thought slipped away again, leaving only that cold fear.

Looking up, she found his eyes fixed on her again, thoughtful. "You remembered something, didn't you?"

"Almost," she muttered, unable to meet his stare. "It...always stops."

Silence, while she avoided his face and he continued to watch her. "I won't ask," he said abruptly. "It's not my business. I can feel it hurts you though...if you do ever want to talk, I'll listen."

He meant it. "Why?" Her voice filled with pure puzzlement as she *did* meet his eyes then and he could see, more than anything, the fear there. "What do you get out of it?"

"You really *did* spend too long in Cougar's mind." He didn't seem at all offended, simply spinning the crumpled can on the table around and around. "It's not about getting anything. It's just...I've seen a lot of people with a lot of secrets. I can't explain it well but...look, do you know what half-breeds are?" 

The word triggered something and for a moment, all she heard was a voice, old as iron and deep as the darkest cavern, echoing around and around her mind. ~ Halfbreeds...halfbreeds...halfbreeds... ~

A jolt and she was hit hard, her head snapping forward with a vicious crack. The last thing she heard was his voice, hands shaking her shoulders. "Jal...Jal...*Jal*!"

****

She found herself lying on the dunes in a desert night as deep and clear as her soul had once been, her hair spilling loose and free over her face. She sat up, pushing the satiny golden mass away like she might a veil, enjoying the sensation of it sliding over her skin and found a boy staring at her. 

He was lying on his side, head propped up on one hand and eyes like pools of inky blackness, stretching into the fathomless deeps that she had sunk through and would never touch again. A place filled with screaming souls, with writhing prisoners and the countless raw moans of broken people.

"Hello, Jallakri." 

His lips had a curious red sheen to them, his hair pale as moonlight and slipping between his fingers carelessly. It was long as her own, easily, and in places, the night's light seemed to strike odd russet hues upon its shimmering surface. 

"Who are you?" 

"You do not know me." He shrugged, skin gleaming. It had a beautiful, living bloom to it and she longed to touch him, just to feel human warmth and human trembling under her hands. "You touched me once."

"I've never seen you in my life."

"I suppose that is true." Something was beginning in his eyes, a tiny pinpoint of light swirling in the depths like the hub of a whirlpool. "Yet you touched me deeply, you touched me with your hands and your voice and a tiny fragment of your soul. It was enough."

"Enough for what?" she whispered, and he sat up, that light swelling and spilling over the blackness. And it was red, deep true red that stirred a feeling of recognition in her. She should know that colour; surely she had been cloaked in it once, had thrown back her head and danced in it, sung out her soul for it.

"Enough to bind us," he said softly, and his voice was husky, as if he had been screaming without stopping. "Enough for me to reach out through the void, and to cling with all my anguish to the creature who burns in that darkness like a torch. You burn in the endless night, Jallakri, you blaze and I want to burn up in the heat of your soul. And I want it so much...that it can be real."

He leaned over and Jal shrank back, yearning for escape. For the first time, she saw that around her lay only that cavernous, ancient darkness and the harsh silver sands and knew her escape was impossible. Instead, she could only watch his molten red eyes growing in her vision.

"You have to know," he said calmly. "I will not have thrown my life at you for nothing."

Her hands pushed at him and simply sank into his chest. There was nothing there, only an empty, hollow cavern. He had no heart. Her eyes widened, wells of pale, flawless green that belonged to a brighter world and she swallowed hard.

"What are you?"

"What you made me." His laugh was low, breathy and bitter. "You broke me and now I will break you. And all it takes, Jallakri, is one touch."

She stared into that ravaged face and felt pity. Pity and terrible, soul shaking fear. "What have I done to you that you hate me so?"

"What have you done? What have you *done*?" He bared his teeth and she saw fangs, useless, lovely and his breath fell onto to her skin like a thousand darts of ice. There was no warmth in him, no heat. "You touched me, Jallakri, and with your poisonous touch, you sent me into the darkness. And I have lain there, neither dead nor alive, but unable to speak, for time beyond comprehension or care. I have screamed silently and bled to death while you have walked on this mortal world."

"I have been there too," she cried out. "I don't know what you think I've done, but I haven't! I was lost in that place, in that darkness. And I am awake, but I have been awake for *days*, only days! I have never seen you, or known you, or touched you."

His eyes remained full of loathing, but beneath it was the most lost and suffering look she had ever seen.

"You have," he said, leaning so close he only had to whisper. "You recall nothing...some things even a monster cannot bear to remember...but let me show you. Know what you did."

And then his slippery, slick mouth touched hers and he kissed her without passion and without love. His touch was frozen, chilling her from the outside in and she realised what the lustre on his mouth had been as the taste of it lingered achingly on her mouth.

It was blood.

It was his blood, and she had killed him. But she had never woken from her sleep; she had not killed him.

And yet...images filled her head; her own laughing voice, her own glittering eyes, her hands clutching at his heated skin and whispering words of darkness, words of pleasure to him and all the while laughing, laughing, laughing until she drove her hands into his thundering, yearning heart and tore it out and with it, sent his soul plummeting into the abyss. Laughing in a barren desert world under a starless sky. 

Stop, she thought, stop, stop, stop!

He did. And those eyes, red with his blood and horror, shrieked. "You see," he told her. "And you know."

"That wasn't me!" she screamed, feeling horror clutch coldly around her heart. "I couldn't! I wouldn't!"

"And if it wasn't you," he said softly, drawing a finger across her cheek. She recognised with horror that it was an icy claw and it was cutting her flesh. "Pray tell, who was it?"

"I didn't kill you!"

"No," he agreed, disarmingly gentle. "You did not. You threw me into hell, Jallakri ap Ganra, you threw my broken soul in to darkness and I can never leave. Until you burn brightest, I can never leave. I want you to burn, burn and take me with you."

"I don't understand..." The tears slid helplessly from her eyes, fear shaking her. 

"You have to. You have to find out." His voice was urgent, frantic. "If you do not understand, I will be trapped forever. How many more will you send to the darkness because you do not know what you did?"

"Please!" she gasped. "Leave me alone! I don't know anything..."

"Start with what you do know," he said softly and stroked that claw, warm with her blood across her hair, leaving a slender trail of crimson. "Learn what you are. And maybe you will save us all."

****

Comments? I'd love to hear what you think!

Ki


	6. Part Six

My huge humble thanks to the wonderful people who have commented on the past few parts :-) You're all complete angels! Thank you to: the fabulous :o), the celebrated Camilla, the kick-ass Kate, the divine Dead Flower, the incredible Ice Princess, the magnificent ME, the glorious Galli-vi and the marvelous Millennia ~ thank you all so much! You have the patience of a very very patient person.

Comments would be adored ~ it's truly that simple :-) Please tell me what you think!

Ki

Nightfire Part Six

Cern Akafren tore through the school halls like a mahogany gale. Some stared as he flew by, most noticed nothing out of the ordinary, still locked in their small enclosed worlds. He was used to running, legs finding the rhythm easily, yet his heart battered frantically, shocked and concerned. 

After Jal had collapsed, unable to heal her, he and Ruby had slapped, shaken and shouted at her, all to no avail. She was moving, squirming faintly; once, her entire body jolted as if she had been electrocuted. Finally, Ruby had told him to go and find Toya. She would stay to 'influence' anyone who got too curious.

Skidding round a corner, he heard raised voices. No, one raised voice. Filled with scorching, twisting wrath, it was what a hurricane would have been if crushed into pure emotion 

"I'm going to kill you."

Seeing as this was a typical Cougar Redfern saying that covered a range of situations from 'I ordered a *plain* cheeseburger' to 'no, that stake should not be in my ribcage,' Cern would normally have ignored it. But now...the lamia sounded serious.

"Future tense, I notice. Face it, brother, the only way you'll kill me is with boredom." The new voice was not a hurricane, but a comet; icy, streaking with energy, slipping through empty darkness. "What is my sin now? I don't seem to remember killing any of your friends today. I feel so unfulfilled."

"You heartless, cold-blooded son-of-a-*bitch*!"

"I'd just like to point out that we share the same mother." Cern placed the voice. A face leapt into his head; cut in elegant lines that would have made Rodin give up sculpting and cry helplessly.

"We don't share anything!" A snarl. "How *dare* you threaten Toya?"

"You know." A gentle purr almost, but it was the hum of an electric wire. 

"You leave her alone. You go near *any* of my friends and I will make you sorry you were ever born."

"No. I'm afraid not. The traditional Redfern reaction to their bastard relatives might have been somewhat irritating when I was younger, but things have changed. Written home lately?" 

The speaker had the exact same nuances as Cougar, but there was something underneath that sent ripples of revulsion through the soul. Like seeing unnatural creatures scuttling beneath someone's skin.

Cern moved unobtrusively down the corridor, feet silent. There was an open door; looking in the reflection of a framed painting on the wall opposite, he could see the tiny, raging figure of Cougar, his eyes two golden orbs even in the diminished image. And the boy who had saved him and Jal from the Pack, sitting cross-legged on a desk and looking amused. 

"Would you like me to turn round so you can twist the knife a little more easily?" Cougar, trying to get control. Ice slid into his voice lazily as a sun-soaked viper. "You know I haven't seen home in five years."

"I shouldn't worry. It's still the same crumbling hellhole." The blue-haired boy was so relaxed, but the smile never touched his deep, austere eyes. "Only Carinna is no longer alone in her grave."

Cougar froze. "No...you didn't..."

"Moi? Oh honestly, one has lackeys for such distasteful errands." The boy was imitating a nineteen-thirties British accent perfectly. Cern had never known anyone mock Cougar with such ease. "I sent dear Mama to a place far more fitting. May she rot in peace."

"You—"

He pelted in to see Cougar, furious, bare his teeth and slam a stake straight at his half-brother. 

Blue didn't move at all from where he sat, a serene and cross-legged Buddha, but blinked once. Power filled the air like cinnamon syrup in sharp and heavy waves.

The lamia was hurled against a window. It shattered brightly as Cougar staggered, dots of crimson flecking on the side of his neck. The sound filled Cern's ears for eternity while he stared at the boy, the monster who hadn't moved at either sight or sound.

"Such sentiment for a woman who condemned you to be buried alive in a Wooden Maiden. Our family's always been so deliciously sadistic, don't you think? We made an iron version for the humans and kept the wooden one our secret."

"She was my blood," Cougar said through gritted teeth. "Family is family."

"Family is an accident of genetics. Why on earth should you feel any emotion for these people because you share biological material? We share DNA with reptiles too, yet I don't hear any great clamor to invite alligators over for dinner." The boy's eyes were a deep, clear blue that had ribbons of cobalt swirling in them thick and heavy as mercury. Contaminated eyes, windows to a soul touched by inhuman ice.

"What's going on?" inquired Cern cautiously, buying time. This had to be Blue...and that meant trouble.

The boy swiveled slightly. "We're basket-weaving. Do you always ask moronic questions?"

"Takes one to know one," snapped Cern, watching as Cougar shook his head frantically, probably trying to tell him to shut up. He ignored him. 

"How true." The boy smiled faintly. "Mostly. I'd watch out if I were you. Your blood's a little on the impure side."

"From what I've heard, so's your soul." His mind was chattering fiercely, throwing ideas at him. He discarded most of them; he had to think himself out of this, not fight. 

"I'll admit," the boy allowed graciously, "I'm no angel. But then, from what *I've* heard, none of your little bunch of friends are going to qualify for the Vestal Virgin of the Year Award, especially that blond creature you've picked up. Jallakri, is she? Not to mention the fact you seem to have killed or maimed rather a lot of important people between you."

"We don't like to boast," said Cern, noticing that Cougar was absolutely still. 

And that meant he was scared; Cougar Redfern was a creature of action – Cern had found that out when he'd met him; he had been unknowingly flirting with Cougar's girlfriend at the time and had woken up with a black eye, a fractured jaw and a furious girl screaming at Cougar.

"Seemingly. You're a valuable group. Dead or alive, though I believe the major contract stipulates alive."

"More threats." 

"Not at all." Blue got up, stretching like a cat; arching his back almost lazily, tilting back his head and letting his eyes fall shut. It was the most unnerving display of pure predatory power Cern had ever seen. "It isn't *me* you should watch out for, Cernunnos Akafren."

How the hell did the boy know his name? 

"Nightfire has good information," the boy informed him calmly.Was he— "Yes, I am reading your mind. It's not exactly the most riveting piece of literature. We've been rather interested in you for a while...and I'd just like to add it wasn't us that destroyed Rebecca. Of course, I wasn't running things then and it was a lot less efficient."

Cern felt all the blood drain from his face. This boy was plucking his darkest secrets from his head without a flicker of effort, and speaking them aloud as casually as if he was reading a newspaper article.

"Pretty little thing," Blue Malefici said lightly. "A waste of potential. She would have been a great asset to Nightfire."

"Her blood wouldn't have been *pure* enough for you," said Cougar, fists clenched. He knew about Cern's younger half-breed sister. Or at least, he knew *some* of it.

Blue looked at him. Cougar couldn't hold that unearthly gaze. 

Cern was reeling from the shock. Becky...dear gods, it was years since he had even allowed himself to think that name though not a day passed when he didn't see her childish face, when the guilt didn't sting him. He thought of her when the scars on his legs ached, though his arms and face had healed long ago.

"Things change." Blue shrugged. "I run Nightfire now."

"I suppose you killed Sonj for fun then?" snarled Cougar, hurt misting his voice in smoky cadences.

Blue sighed. "You really do harp on about these things. You must be quite a bore to your friends. Yes. I killed her for fun. I killed her because it was in my orders. I killed her because she shot a nail into my hand. I killed her because she was weak. But I, personally, did not kill her because she was a half-breed. What does it matter? She's still rotting."

"It matters. You killed her for nothing."

"I wouldn't say nothing. I'm sure she would appreciate knowing she made me happy. And rich." The cruel words stabbed into the air. "Amusing though you are, I have more interesting things to do. But..."

_ _

Cougar's eyes smouldered dangerously. Cern knew that look; it meant Cougar was about to lose control. And when Cougar lost control, boiling hot oil would be a comparative mercy 

"As we be of one blood, let me give you some advice. Get over it. People die – so what? I can assure you once they're dead, they really don't give a damn, so why should you? I killed her. I don't know what it is you want me to say. That I feel guilty or sorry? I don't. And that's how it is. So live with it, or die for it."

He strolled out, whistling a strangely haunting tune.

"Bastard," said Cougar hopelessly. They looked at each other, both of them seeing three years of relative peace, of safety and refuge from their ghosts, vanishing. "Bastard."

****

Jal opened her eyes onto blinding light and as her eyes watered profusely, and realised she was lying on the ground. In the...what did Cougar call it? The recovery position? As she heard voices, she stayed still, not sure of her motive, but knowing that the presence of her, the outsider, would make the odd argument stop.

"So you've turned up at last?" The words rang harshly into the air. Ruby of the livid soul.

The new voice was tremulous and timid. "I...thought I should."

"Because Cougar's got a free this afternoon and won't be around?" Snort. "You're pathetic, Ria."

"You don't understand." A broken whisper.

"I do. We've all been victim to the Redfern charm. My particular infection made me a vampire and his brother nearly made me a corpse. They've got a cruel streak, all of them. Redferns don't love. They lust."

"Not all of them. Cougar's different."

"Is this a dagger I see before me?" A foot stamped reverberatingly close to Jal's head. "Yes, it is, Ria, and it's the one that soulmate of yours has stuck in your back time and time again. When are you going to figure it out? Redferns don't need anyone, especially not people like you."

"No. That's not true." The voice faded away, like a dying flower. "It can't be true."

"You live the dream if you want. It won't stop the truth. He doesn't love you. He doesn't want you, and my dear, he certainly doesn't need you." The hard, callous bitterness of a lifetime in there. Jal remembered Cougar's memories of Ruby; what he had done to her, what she had become. And she felt only pity, pity that a creature so cruel should come from someone so gentle.

There was a long silence. Around them, life spun on, bustling and bright, but here, stony silence and aching. The soft-voiced girl spoke again, a gentle tremor in her voice like a wary child. "Who's that girl?"

"Who cares? Something the boys picked up probably. Looks a bit of a slut with that bad dye job. She must be epileptic – she threw a fit. Cern's zoomed off to get Toya to heal her." 

Jal trembled with righteous indignation. She didn't know what a slut was, but from the contempt in Ruby's voice, she could guess. And bad dye job? What did she mean?

She felt a shadow fall over her, then the shy voice, nearer. "She looks normal to me." 

"Don't they all?" The hardness cut the air like sharp-edged flint

A cool hand brushed her forehead. "Goddess, she's cold! That's not epilepsy, Ruby, it's...magickal."

"Yeah, and *you* are such an expert." 

Jal half-opened her eyes to see the quiet girl bite her lip. She wasn't beautiful at all, except in Cougar's memory, in fact she was plain. The girl glanced down to see Jal staring at her and gave a little gasp.

"Stay still," the girl mouthed. "Or she'll go ballistic." Aloud, she said, "I...uh...hear Jepar rang Toya yesterday."

There was a sound like a banshee wailing. "What? And she didn't tell me? The filthy...I'm going to find her," snarled Ruby furiously and she must have stormed away, because the girl helped Jal sit up.

There was silence for a moment; Jal stared at her face, comparing it to the image in her mind. The turquoise eyes were the same, wide and apprehensive, with tinges of mystery deepening them. And yes, there was the same delicate bone structure, and the fluffy, foaming red-gold hair, but she wasn't the elfin goddess Cougar saw her as. Jal wondered why he perceived her in such a false way.

"Hi," the girl said softly. "I'm Ria Lutinne...do you know what happened? Are you epileptic? Or is it something else? Should I call anyone?"

Jal swallowed. "I have no one to call."

I am alone here. I am standing in a place full of thousands of people and I am alone under an empty sky.

"She's so paranoid about Jepar," the girl said. There was a wistful sadness in her face that seemed to be permanent. "He's this...guy. Nice. Blonde. Chivalrous to the point of stupidity but the sweetest thing you'll ever meet. Thinks she...loves...him." her voice caught and she swallowed hard. "Sorry."

"Thinking of Cougar," said Jal sympathetically and then realised that perhaps people weren't so frank about their problems as the girl froze like a cornered deer, every bit as slender and graceful. "Oh no, you don't have to be scared!" No, that wasn't the right thing to say either. The girl looked positively terrified. 

"Oh, no, look, I'm sorry... I only just...this is going to sound really weird, but I only just woke up. I was born hundreds of years ago..." It occurred to her that Blue might have been lying. She simply didn't know.

"That's not weird," the girl said, relaxing a fraction, though she still had one hand poised on the grass as if ready to pelt away at any moment. "It happens all the time round here."

"Yes, but I can't remember anything," she said despairingly. "Except...a dream. Something horrible." Ria looked baffled. "I should explain," sighed Jal, and promptly told her about everything, the story pouring out in hurried, uncertain words. About waking up, being rescued by Cern and absorbing Cougar's memories.

"Oh!" was all Ria said throughout it, her turquoise eyes growing larger and larger and her shocked, pale skin gradually regaining colour. 

"And...uh...I heard Ruby talking to you about Cougar," said Jal shyly. She wasn't sure she ought to interfere with this – who was she to tell the secrets of another's heart? "He's your...soulmate, isn't he? Please, I know he hurt you, but he loves you. He really does. He's just scared."

The girl's mouth trembled, her eyes iridescent. Oh no, thought Jal, I didn't mean to hurt her *again*.

"I know," she said in a voice that was very ordinary, without Cern's subtle innuendo, or Cougar's darkness, or Lisa's strength. She's someone like me, realised Jal, who's lost and pretending to be found because it makes everything easier to bear. "But people don't understand. Love, it's a wondrous thing, but it doesn't solve problems. It doesn't change who he is or who I am."

"I know," said Jal bitterly, remembering the treachery of an aeon ago. "It doesn't change anything."

They exchanged a sad, knowing glance. "Men," they both said. And then Ria gave her a tiny, surprised smile that nearly reached her eyes, and Jal smiled back. 

"You're the first person to see Cougar's mind in a long time," Ria murmured. There was something bitter, something hurt in her. It was horribly wrong, like seeing a child holding a gun. "You're lucky."

"Am I?" Jal tried to choose her words carefully. This girl seemed on the verge of collapse; not physical, but emotional. "All of them, they've been so nice to me. I...have never known much kindness."

Ria met her eyes. "They're close, aren't they? You know, I've known them for months now, but I still feel on the outside. They're always so dreadfully kind, but they're..."

"Careful." That was the word, realised Jal. 

Ria blinked, those eyes seeming to dominate her face. She was desperately thin, and didn't seem to care about herself much. Her hair was loose, her clothes scruffy, she wore no jewellery except a heart that was made of a tiny clear stone, surrounded by a deep red gem and finally set in gold.

"Yes," the human girl said. "That's it exactly." She looked at Jal with a kind of wonder. "I've never met anyone else who understands. Ruby...she's like them too. She's Nightworld. And Alisha, she just fitted right in. And even though they all say they hate Iry, they like him too. And I'm..."

"Outside, looking in," finished Jal. It was at that moment she realised Ria would be a friend. Because she *understood* – her ka showed on her face. "I knew someone very like Cougar once. But the man I knew was evil. Cougar's not bad, he's just...caged."

"I thought it was everything I wanted," said Ria, plucking the grass and shredding it between her fingers. Her red-gold hair frothed around her face, the sun striking fiery highlights on it. "Plain girl, gorgeous guy, knight in shining armour, you know. But he has secrets. That's what I don't understand."

"I wish I could help," said Jal. The talk of secrets made her think of her unnerving vision. No. She didn't want to think about that. Maybe it was a...a...hallucination brought on by the...heat. That was what these modern people would say. A strange dream. And who was to say they weren't right?

"You have. It's nice to have someone to talk to." Her fingers toyed with the gleaming pendant.

"What's the heart for? Do the stones mean anything?"

Ria flushed a little and the sadness in her face deepened. Damn, Jal thought. "It was a...Valentine's gift. Cougar said it was gold, garnet and crystal. Lightning, fire and blood. He said that was what we were."

Yes, Jal thought quietly, that was right. Ria Lutinne and Cougar Redfern. Both struck and pierced by that beautiful, fatal lightning, burnt up by the dazzling heat of that contact and left to bleed away silently. 

She tried to change the subject hastily. "What did Ruby mean, a bad dye job?"

"That weird red streak down your hair," Ria answered, looking a little amused, her hand still clenched around the delicate heart. "She's always like that about people she feels threatened by. Which is everyone."

"That..." Jal shook out her hair in front of her and saw it, slicing into her vision in a bolt of crimson. Oh god. Where that boy had touched her with his fingers in her sickening dream, where he had smeared blood down her hair...it was there.

And that meant it was real.

****

"Toya? Toya, hon?" 

She had her head in her hands, trying to survive the tremors that rippled through her mind and her body; forlorn voices screaming whom she had known intimately once, but who had been cut silent one by one. 

Chatoya looked up, not knowing how haggard her face was, how her green eyes seemed to have lost their soft mossy lustre and become dead. 

The stark, gravely drawn face of Lisa Ochai filled her vision, all warmth with her smooth chocolate skin and infinitely comforting chestnut eyes. "Oh hon," she murmured, "I'm sorry. We didn't know he'd come back...we didn't know he'd come back for you."

Her blood jittered shrilly in her ears like crickets. "I th-thought he'd g-gone..." she managed to gasp out, her hands shaking despite the fact they were locked about her drawn-up knees. "Why me? Why?"

Lisa hesitated, gently putting her hands over Chatoya's. Her touch was a solace, strong and calm as her even voice as she chose her words with thought. "Who knows how that boy's mind works."

"He's n-not a boy," she said, glaring black tendrils clinging to her mist-white skin. "He's a m-monster."

"Don't call him that," said Lisa gently, looking at the shattered face before her, feeling rage at the frozen soul of Blue Malefici that he could reduce one of her dearest friends to this. "Don't make him into some nightmare creature. That's how he works. He preys on fear, hon. When all's said and done, he's just a boy."

She didn't believe that entirely, but it was important that Chatoya did. She watched as her friend gradually stopped trembling so violently, only shivering slightly now. She had never seen such visceral, sweeping dread in any person. Even now, even Toya's lips were pale, her eyes too white.

"He's not just a boy," Chatoya said numbly, staring blankly ahead. "He's..." For a moment, Lisa thought Chatoya would tell her the secret that she didn't realize Lisa knew; that Blue was the other half of her soul, be it a shrivelled, grotesque half swathed in physical allure. But the witch's breath caught and she finally said, "Evil. He's *evil*."

"Maybe," allowed Lisa, fiddling with the dozens of coloured glass bangles that clinked on her wrists. "But people use that word too lightly. It's slang. Evil is a very powerful word, Toya. In my—" No, she thought hastily, they don't know that! "uh, church, that word was never used because it implied something so terrible, so dark that it could rip the world into pieces. He doesn't have that sort of force, Toya. Don't believe he does. It's just another way of giving him power."

"What am I supposed to do?" she demanded hollowly, turning tumultuous eyes to the made vampire. "He killed so many people. He took my family away."

"And you still beat him," said Lisa strongly. "He couldn't kill you three years ago. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger – it's old, and it's true. Just keep away from him for a while, get used to him being here. Then you can kick his perfect ass out of town." Lisa grinned. "Trust me, as an expert on the kicking of the shapely Redfern butt, it can be done."

Chatoya gave her a winsome smile. "You sound so convinced."

"I am. Come on, hon, we've only got one more lesson, then we can all go home and enjoy Autumn Equinox with the Circle. Zara's driving up from Vegas and bringing that hunk of a fiancée with her..."

The witch brightened a little. "It's been so long since we've all seen each other."

"See?" said Lisa, helping her up and handing her a tissue and eyeliner. "Now go fix your make-up. And if Blue Malefici turns up *there*, it's really time to start worrying. If only about his mental health."

Blue didn't turn up there. No one knew where he was. But as Cougar Redfenr said; what the eye doesn't see, the heart doesn't grieve.

By the end of the lunch break, a slightly happier group of people sat around in the sweltering heat, Cougar and Ria managing to avoid speaking entirely while chattering with everyone else. Chatoya was laughing with Lisa as they regaled Jal with stories about Cern and Cougar, both of whom denied everything.

"It's Autumn Solstice, tonight," said Lisa, grinning. "We have a little tradition – just stay in the house tonight, and all will be revealed. And no, Cougar, that does not mean you're going to have to strip again."

And it seemed that Cougar had been right; with Blue gone, his soft deadly voice but a ghost, the summer was bright and full of promise.

But what the eye doesn't see, the heart cannot stop.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I'd love to know what you think!


	7. Part Seven

Thank you to all the lovely people who commented on the last part :-) May the sun be bright, the rain be light and your soulmate turn up on your doorstep!

The divine Dead Flower: ::grins:: Trust me, that ain't short! Hmmm...BLue and Toya - if you'd like I have a couple of unseen scenes I could send you? Just drop me a line: kiananw@hotmail.com (I did have your addy but after my comp crashed, it took my address book with it, damn it!) First...uh..Jal. Second: Cougar and Ria. Third: Blue and Toya. I *think*. :-) Thank you!

The delightful Dee: I didn't know you resided here! :-) Yup, this is Cern's story ~ and you're spot on about Ria. Ruby gets on my nerves too, to be honest. I have this feeling she's my bad side. You see Jepar and SHar soon! (In fact, unless I'm mistaken, you just did g) Ah, her secret...it's a dark one. But then again, I have yet to meet a secret that isn't. Thanks!

The illustrious Ice Princess: Thanks! I always feel kind of sorry for Ria...she seems to be pretty left out, It's about time she had a friend. Jal is explained :-) Piece by piece! I'm glad you're enjoying the story - it's my escape from a) reality and b) my mock exams.

The marvellous Myst: Thanks for telling me you enjoyed them! You read all six at once? Ikarumba! That must have taken a while. Weird? Oh, definitely :-) I'm starting to think I've forgotten what normal is. And thank you! I'm elated you like them!

~*~ Comments would be quite simply adored J Please tell me what you think! ~*~

Nightfire Part Seven

There was complete chaos in Jal's new home.

"Put it under the sink!" yelled Lisa as Chatoya waved a flaming pan around madly. "No, *don't* turn the tap on, it's got oil in..."

The Circle had begun to gather in Cern and Thom's house for the Solstice by early evening. 

Not all of them were there; Ruby and Ria weren't turning up, while an ashen, anxious Thom had had to take his little sister to hospital with what he thought might be tonsillitis. A morose Cougar slunk in and kept away from anywhere that hard work was going on. He and Cern had been banned from the kitchen after what Lisa coyly referred to as the 'arsenic' incident.

While people busied themselves in the kitchen Jal sat quietly on a chair and watched. Lisa was chopping vegetables so fast her hands and the knife were a blur. She seemed to be doing six things at once, without burning or overcooking anything. Chatoya told her Lisa could cook like an angel, and they often suspected she was one. 

"My mom had a drink problem," she informed Jal, who wasn't sure what he meant – maybe she didn't drink enough. "So I had to learn to look after myself."

"How many do we have tonight, Lise?" asked Chatoya, her long black hair scraped back and her face gleaming with sweat. 

Lisa shrugged. "Not many, really. You, me. Cougar, Cern andJal. And Zara and this apparently yummy fiancé of hers." 

"He's gorgeous," confirmed Chatoya. She grinned at Jal from where she was stirring some kind of sauce. "Zara met her soulmate. He's a bit of a power in the Nightworld...and he looks like sin incarnate."

Cern had explained this custom of theirs earlier; it had started off as a joke one Samhain, when Cougar had suggested that instead of summoning the dead (after something he called The Exorcist meets the Candyman, which Jal didn't understand at all), they cook and eat the dead – that was, the dead pigs that had been pounded into sausages in the freezer. And it just carried on from there. 

Every festival, Circle Strange would meet up and check they were all still alive. Anyone who could cook would and when it was all prepared, they'd sit down at the vast wooden table and catch up on the news.

Cern had once jokingly called it 'the Nights at the Round Table' and it had stuck. 

"You any good with curry, Jal?" Chatoya looked at her with pleading. "This recipe's just impossible."

"What's curry?"

"Ah." The witch paused. "Go and talk to the boys. Things are only going to get even more messy."

****

"'Twas the night before Solstice and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse..." Cern quoted and grinned. He loved the spicy scents that wafted through from the kitchen.

"You got that one wrong." Cougar had his sullen, depressed face on."Round here, it's 'Twas the night before Solstice and all through the kitchen, the girls of the Circle were cooking and bitch—Ow!" 

A well-aimed spoon from the kitchen shut him up. 

"Hey! What was that for?"

A dark head appeared through the hatch. Chatoya Irkil's face was mock serious, her soft eyes glowing at the vampire. "I can't believe you don't *know*."

"Zara's late," Cougar said, conveniently ignoring the witch. He rolled his eyes. "You'd think she could at least be on time since we haven't seen her for six months."

"I thought Dragon and Matt were supposed to be heading up here," remarked Cern lazily. "What's their excuse?"

"Wait!" Cougar Redfern held up a hand from where he was lounging in front of the TV. "I know that one...they're fighting the forces of darkness. The delectable Dragon rang and said they're all tied up."

"Kinky." 

Jal was wrestling with a soft drink someone had thrown her, her face fixed with concentration. Cern couldn't imagine how it was for her. He had found it hard enough to leave his home. But she had stayed still while time spun around her like stars caught in a tornado.

With an exasperated sigh, Cougar leaned over and flicked opened the can, gold eyes glittering with something akin to amusement. In so far as anything made Cougar laugh lately.

"Anyway," drawled Cougar, "Tali and Jepar say they should be getting back soon, so we can look forward to more sappiness than the Natural History Museum's entire collection of amber."

Lisa padded in, wiping her forehead. "Gods above, it's chaos in there. I just set the toaster on fire."

"No, that's the one Ruby rigged up to electrocute Jepar," murmured Cern. He had had a shock or two from that himself. "I can't believe I thought she was a lot like Zara. She maybe not be the sharpest knife in the draw, but that's only because she's holding it."

"Ruby'll get over it," said Lisa firmly. "She's just needs to accept that Jepar is happy now."

Cougar snorted. "She never shuts up about him. 'What's *she* got that I haven't?'," he mimicked. "How about phenomenal dragon powers, eight hundred years of Old Soul history and oh, a binding contract on his soul."

Cern could see Jallakri listening intently, unconsciously scooting nearer. Her pale green eyes were wide and intrigued. She didn't look wild anymore, simply normal with that mess of golden hair drawn back in a clip, the fey red streak tucked behind one ear neatly.

"And how," the lamia continued in the same angry vein, "can Zara, of all people, be getting *married*?"

"You'll understand when you meet the husband-to-be," Chatoya said, putting her head around the door. "Lisa, how do you know when to stop adding chilli to a curry?"

The made vampire frowned. "Bring it in."

Cougar and Cern exchanged glances. They had both been subject to Chatoya's perilous cooking. "Bring a glass of water too!" the witch boy yelled.

Chatoya came in carrying a saucepan. Lisa took one taste and grabbed the glass of water the witch was carrying, her chestnut eyes watering. 

"There's enough in there. Add some yoghurt to *try* and tone it down."

"What flavour?" 

Looking horrified, Lisa leapt up and headed into the chaos of the kitchen.

"You do this every festival?" asked Jal, clearly fascinated. Her eyes were bright with interest. She looked, he thought, startlingly cat-like, with her hands linked under her pointed chin and her feet tucked neatly together.

"Come hell or high water, and occasionally, it's been both," said Cern wryly. "And—"

The doorbell rang and with an apologetic smile, he got up to answer it.

****

"Oh..." The brown-haired girl stretched lazily. "it's so nice to be going back home."

"Home?" The boy driving gave a startled laugh. "You've only been there a few weeks."

She shrugged, and turned the motion into an easy rolling of her shoulders. "It's where the heart is. Watch it, Jepar!"

The boy slammed on the brakes and the car screeched to a halt.

"I knew there was a reason they called you the Jubatus Road Peril," the girl muttered. Her eyes, a clear dark blue like sapphires in shadow, glowed affectionately. 

The boy gestured to the road ahead. It was a clear stretch of wide open scrubland, sandy and dusty. "You want to drive, Tali?"

She pulled a face. "You know I can't." She sighed. "I wonder if anything's happened while we've been away."

Jepar swung the car into gear. "It's Ryars Valley. I haven't had a moment's peace since I moved there." He grinned, eyes like twin emeralds narrowed against the sun. "It's been brilliant."

"I had a really weird dream the other night," she said thoughtfully. "I think it was true."

"What was it?"

She laid a hand over his and the boy hit the brakes as the dream pounded violently into his skull.

It was night, and it was somewhere within the verdant woods of the valley, he knew that much. The ground lay still, leaves piled on it. In his mind, he heard distant howls, their rhythm rippling through him. Stillness lay all around, like a thick blanket. 

Then the ground erupted, sending a spray of dirt and dust into the air as two pallid hands slammed onto the ground, clawing into the damp earth and flexing as something drew itself out of the earth. It turned a too-human face to the crescent moon and gave a long wail. Golden hair fluttered down its back in lank, muddy tails as it seemed to stand to arch, to stretch up for that glittering slice of pearl before it collapsed.

The boy shuddered as his soulmate drew away. Alisha Althasson looked at him, worried. "I don't know what it is," she confessed. "But it scares me."

"It scares me too," he said grimly. "Gods, Tali, what the hell was that?"

"I don't know," she answered. "But we should find out. It didn't feel human, or even alive. Whatever it is, Jepar, it's long dead. But I don't know if it knows that."

****

"Is that you, Cern Akafren?" a sweet voice said as he opened the door to see a familiar figure. "It is!" Then there was delighted screaming and he was hit by nine stone of enthusiastic friend. "Are the others in there?" Zara gasped as she flung her arms round his neck and tried to affectionately strangle him. 

He disentangled himself and looked at her. Still the same Zara, barely pushing five foot with her bright blue eyes and short dark hair that clung to her face. Being made into a vampire hadn't changed her at all. 

"Where else would they be on Solstice?" he demanded. "And some new faces too." As she darted inside, he yelled, "And *don't* annoy Cougar!"

He turned his attention back to the other person at the door. And met the slightly weary obsidian gaze of a boy who looked about his age with the dazzling looks of a vampire and hair so dark a red it was almost black. "You'd be the fiancé?" he inquired.

"Got it in one. Does she never stop?" the vampire sighed as they all heard Zara's voice shrieking happily and rapidly rising in pitch and volume. "You know, I was meant to be having someone killed yesterday, but she makes it very difficult."

Cern looked at the vampire, wondering if he had just heard that. "If you don't mind – why? Oh, and come in," he added, as the vampire strode in.

"She keeps talking to them and telling me that evil isn't all bad and couldn't they just be tortured instead. And she can be very...distracting," the vampire admitted with a rueful smile.

"Darling!" Zara came bouncing out of the kitchen again and hauled the vampire into the living room. Cern noticed that despite the fact her fiancé could probably have squashed her like a bug, had he the mind, he submitted with nothing more than a slight sigh and an embarrassed smile. "By the way, Cern," she shouted back at him. "This is Dark and he's the fiancé."

****

"What took you so long, midget?" Cougar Redfern demanded, obviously delighted by the appearance of the sleek, chic girl. He was smiling, his eyes lit with the odd sweetness that so few people saw.

"Nice to know you missed me, Redfern," she drawled in a voice as cool as ice. She *was* tiny, at least a foot shorter than him. "Just thought I'd drop in."

"From *Vegas*?" 

"A mere three days drive," Cern put in, switching the TV off. "C'mon Cougar, quit giving her a hard time."

"Oh, been there and done that," the girl said, giving the lamia a glare. 

"I made you very happy," protested Cougar.

"Happy?" the girl said and gave a hard laugh. Her eyes flashed like sapphires, filled with impossibly bright colour and radiance. "Debatable, but from the way you've been screwing up lately, I'm not seeing much happiness in your future. At this rate, I'm not even sure you'll *have* a future."

"You won't if you keep talking like that, Zara. It's my business if I mess my life up."

"Yeah, and it's our business when you take someone else down with you." Zara flicked back the mane of glossy black hair that curled down to her stubborn chin. "You're messing up Ria, Cougar. Poor girl loves you so much it hurts her and you're too goddamned stubborn and hurt yourself to do anything about it."

Jal had to admire the way she stood up the vampire. She glanced around the room and saw Cern in the midst of a suspicious coughing fit. The girl's fiancée, who was lounging quietly on a chair, was hiding a smile behind his hand. 

His black eyes swung to meet Jal's and she nearly gasped aloud at the depth there. His eyes seemed to reach into infinity, and she could see strange specks of light glinting in them, as if the night sky had been cut down and locked into his stare.

He looked back, and she slowly saw puzzlement cross his face. Almost recognition. Despite the fact hse knew she had never seen him, fear filtered coolly under her skin.

"... and what business of yours is it anyway?" the lamia boy was snapping, his teeth bared. Jal wondered if the only way he knew how to stop anyone getting to close was to lash out.

"As your ex-girlfriend and current friend, it's my business," she said steadily. "I'm the only one out of this lot who hates you just about enough to see what you're doing and likes you just about enough to tell you."

Jal could see Cougar searching for an escape, his face filled with an almost frightened, caged look. "Well, maybe I don't want to hear it."

"I don't give a damn what you want."

"Enough!" said Lisa, striding in. "This meant to be a reunion, and listening to you two yelping isn't anyone's idea of fun. Introduce me to this gorgeous man, Zara..."

****

Dinner was a strange affair. Zara's enigmatic fiancé turned out to have a bewitchingly soft velvet-dark voice and a lot of confusion concerning Circle Strange.

"So let me get this straight," he was saying quietly. "You," he pointed at Lisa, "are a made vampire. And you're soulmates with—"

"No, no, that's all wrong," interrupted Zara. "Honestly, Dark, it's not that difficult!"

"Of course not," the boy murmured. His eyes flickered to Jal again and that odd bemusement filled them. 

"Cougar is soulmates with Ria," began Zara, helping herself to Cajun chicken. "Ria isn't here...because moron here has—all right, Redfern, you don't need to glare, I'll leave it be. He also changed Ruby, the resident neurotic, into a vampire illegally. Neither she nor Thom, our Old Soul bizarre boy, are here. Alisha, who used to be Cougar's sister in a past life – Toya, are you *sure* about that?"

"*I'm* sure," put in Cougar sullenly. "And it was my past life, so I should know."

"You'd think, wouldn't you?" said Zara snidely. "Alisha is also Jepar's soulmate. You met him, Cougar and Toya when they came to visit. Alisha and Jepar have gone off somewhere – and what's this Alisha girl like?"

"Like Jepar, only with a brain," said Cern dryly. Zara grinned.

"Lisa, here, our cook, is a made vampire. She came here because she robbed a Nightworld vault. And finally, you have Cern, who doesn't really like to say why he's here. Unless you'd like to elaborate...?"

Cern raised his eyebrows. "Don't ask and I won't have to lie."

"Fine." The tiny girl flicked her hair back from her face. "And that's everyone."

"Not quite," her fiancé observed quietly. His piercing stare swung to Jal again. He was unnerving her. "You haven't told me who this is?"

Zara shrugged and looked at her friends. "I don't know."

"Jal," said Cougar tersely. "Our latest. She's a wolf—"

"I'm not," protested Jal. "I can't be! I'd know!"

She didn't feel any different. She didn't look any different, except for that strange crimson streak slicing down her hair. How could she have changed in such a fundamental way and not know?

The darkness, she thought suddenly. You were lost in there for so long. Thousands of years passed...who knows what else changed? The world has altered irrevocably. Why not you too?

Cougar's golden eyes glittered like the sun on amber. "Maybe. Maybe not. Dozens of people don't realise they can shift if they're changed while they're unconscious. It's been done before – you don't necessarily have to drink their blood, just a transfusion is enough."

"But..."

"He's right," Cern put in gently. He smiled at her, his mellow tones soothing. "We're Nightworld, Jal. We know our own. Even the Pack said you were a wolf. Look, I can see auras, and yours is Nightworld."

She looked at his solemn face, at the sheer truth that blazed out from his violet eyes and had to believe him. She could see the truth in him.

"What colour is that anyway?" said Zara. "You always told me I was turquoise."

Jal blinked. Auras? He could see the light of the soul?

Cern tilted his head on one side, squinting at the girl. "You still are, mostly. There's just a sort of silver sheen laid over it. That's what the Nightworld gives you." He shivered. "The older you are, the more silver. Like Dark, you're a really deep silver colour, more like lead. Though Lise, you're almost that colours too, only with a gold tinge. But you're only thirty."

Lisa fiddled with her knife. "Yeah. Well...there's always exceptions." The bangles on her arms jingled and gleamed in the light as she spread her hands. "And you all know how exceptional I am!"

Cougar snorted. "Dream on, Lise. What colour am I?"

The witch didn't hesitate before he said, "Gold. Streaked with black. You aren't happy."

Cougar scowled. "No kidding, Einstein."

"Oh, it's all your own fault," snapped Zara, and the pair of them were off again, snapping and snarling like cornered wolves, any trace of peace vanishing under accusations and argument.

"Could you pass the salt?" asked Cern absently. He was listening to the rapidly escalating argument between Zara and Cougar, head propped on one hand. His wavy mahogany hair caught burgundy in the light.

"Sure." Jal stretched over, watching Cougar's snarling, curling mouth and the contrast of the other girl's amused, yet gentle eyes. 

He reached out and their hands brushed, and it was as if someone had shot a jet of icy water through her body into her soul...

Jal felt darkness wrap around her and take hold.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I'd love to hear what you have to say!


	8. Part Eight

Well, my apologies - for this taking so long - and my ecstatic, over-the-moon, heel-kicking thanks to the lovely people who reviewed - thanks guys, you rock! Thanks to:

The delectable Dee: ::Ki blinks:: Hey, you review for every chapter, the *last* thing you see will be complaining. I adore reviews! Routine banter :-) Yeah, I guess it is! I don't know, conversations just seem to blossom when they're about. And well, that happens with my friends (who are a pretty weird bunch, bless 'em.) Zara is back only briefly at the mo, but she should be back later, though I can't say why... Thanks everso!

The definitive Dead Flower: Oh, I know how it is being sick - I hope you get better soon...no one should be ill at this time of year, so take some time off and relax :-) And apparently, the msell of chocoalte is supposed to boost your immune system. ::grins:: Yeah, Cern and Jal have something there ~ but hopefully I'll surprise you yet (if I don't, it's time to retire...no one should be forced to read garbled repitition...) Huge thanks!

The inspiring Ice Princess: Zara is back :-) Only briefly though (men!) Cougar needs to have sense shot into him, in my opinion :-) But that would be cruel... I like cliffhangers. They leave me a sense of well-being and something to write about! Hopefully you can read this story without having read the other ones (I don't think there's anything too huge I haven't explained...if there is, yell!) Merci beaucoup!

The wondrous Wind Dancer: Great name :-) Thanks! I've always had fun writing this series, I don't know - it's just addictive! Yeah, you see more of Blue and Toya (That boy is just a scene-stealer). It's not just a Jal/Cern story, don't worry :-) other people and their various problems creep in...like life really...anyways, I'll cease rambling and just say: thank you so much! I love reading what you have to say.

Anything you have to say would be adored, pored over and purely cherished.

Ki

Nightfire Part Eight

One touch had been enough.

One touch, and Cern Akafren knew his whole life would be changed. One touch, and he felt a sizzling connection leap between himself and this alien, timid girl who he barely knew.

It was as if he had been walking in a deep fierce storm, with the rain so thick and harsh that it stung his eyes and blurred the way ahead. And sometimes the storm would slacken and the air become lighter, and sometimes there would be hail to cut him to pieces and icy cold, but always the same tempest, obscuring all before him, hiding all behind him.

And now the storm had lifted, and though the rain still tumbled as brutally hard as ever, the clouds were gone and above him, the most amazing rainbow hung shimmering in the air. Something that wasn't really tangible, yet still existed.

~ Jal? ~ he said softly, hardly daring to breathe. 

He was surprised to find he was scared. What did he know about soulmates? Nothing. He had thought he was supposed to feel an instant love, or affection, or anything but the empty panic that filled his heart. He didn't *know* Jal. Sometimes, he didn't even think he knew himself.

The thought of anyone seeing his soul, his every secret, was terrifying.

But he couldn't resist this unearthly pull that dragged him through a dark channel at furious speed, so he could see nothing but rushing blackness, and far away, a distant grey glow.

~ She is not here... ~ 

The voice was rich and throaty, and there was a promise in it. It filled the air around him like intoxicating wine.

~ She has been gone from here for a long time, ~ the voice said and laughed, desire slicing through it. ~ She left me alone long ago...I want you. Your life is sweet, little halfbreed. ~

~ Jal? ~ he said again, confused. The voice sounded like her...but it was so cold, so full of hungry craving.

~ Not here, halfbreed boy. ~ Another, softer laugh. ~ There is only me here in the darkness. *She* is in the light...but soon, I shall rise. I want to be back in the light, back in the night's fire. It has been so long since I have tasted life. ~

The grey glow was becoming brighter in his vision, turning into a bright blue light that burned his eyes so he had to look away. But like a fading refrain, he heard that succulent, strong voice.

~ The night fires will burn soon. And so will you... ~

The glow was searing through his eyelids now, the cold wind throwing him forward into the light, faster and faster—

The impact knocked him to his hands and knees.

~ Cern? ~ he heard a voice say. For a moment, he thought it was that other, luxurious one, but no, there was a subtle awe in it, and like a light flicked on, her thoughts flowing through his head, a mix of pastel colours.

~ Oh gods, ~ he said quietly. He was subsumed in her thoughts, in the delicate blue of her marvel and the flushing pale pink of her shyness. And it was incredible. ~ It's real. ~

~ We're meant to be like this, aren't we? ~ she whispered. 

He opened his eyes and found himself within a temple, a place cast in shadows shot with stark moonlight. She was there, in front of him, kneeling in a shaft of light that picked out the glaring crimson streak in her spilling hair, staring at him with wide and shocked eyes.

He looked back, caught between fear and delight. ~ Yeah. ~

Delight, because this was what everyone dreamed of. Of finding the someone who would understand them perfectly, who you could look at and share more than a mere glance, to whom one word would say what a thousand songs could not. 

Fear, because the person he showed to everyone else was not the truth. It was a selection of what he wanted to show, a fraction of his thoughts and feelings. He had secrets that were buried so deep they would never claw their way to the surface again. Qualms he would never mention. Thoughts he would never voice.

And he was so afraid that none of those would ever be his own to keep again.

~ I'm scared, ~ she confessed in a small voice, twisting her hands.

He looked at her solemnly. ~ So am I. ~

~ You? ~ Astonishment in the line of her mouth. ~ But...you aren't afraid of anything. ~

~ Sure I am. I have an entire ossuary in my closet. But...I still think I want to know, because if I don't, I'll always wonder. ~ He paused, wanting and not wanting to say it. ~ We're soulmates. ~

A deep hush as she seemed to search his eyes, her stare sweet and piercing. ~ But I don't love you, ~ she said in childlike bewilderment. ~ Cougar loves his soulmate. Ria loves him. ~

That made him grin. ~ Cougar and Ria have known each other for over a year. I guess you don't just fall in love. ~ The words felt awkward. It was such a powerful word, love, and it was so often misused. To be talking about love to this exotic girl felt odd. Almost embarrassing. ~ It takes time. And you have to want to... ~

~ And do you? ~ she said quickly then went scarlet. He could feel her mortification like warm water. 

~ I...don't know. ~ He shrugged. ~ I'd...like to give it a try. ~ He was *never* shy, but somehow, Cern found he couldn't look her in the eye. ~ You just have to trust me. ~

~ I'm not sure either, ~ she said hesitantly. ~ But...but what can it hurt? Please... ~ She didn't say it, but he heard her unfinished plea. Please don't hurt me.

How could you think I would, he wanted to say, but didn't. No one could make that kind of promise.

~ Where is this? ~ he queried, looking around. It was clearly a temple of some sort, torches burning orange on the wall and casting shivery shadows onto the walls and floor. In the centre of the floor, a pool swayed and lapped gently.

Her terror blossomed like dozens of flowers, bursting into fiery life.

~ It's all I remember, ~ she said quietly, her voice trembling. ~ It's everything. ~

At the very edge of his hearing, like the background noise of the elements, he heard a faint whispering. Something flickered in his vision and he turned to look at it, heart pounding.

There were people, standing in the temple, faint gauzy figures. They were speaking in a throbbing ancient language he didn't know, but Jal did. He could feel the meaning of this strange ritual through the link. 

And that was a ghost of Jal standing in front of what was unmistakably an altar. His stare swung back to her; she had covered her hands with her face and was muttering something faintly under her breath. 

He reached out to her, not knowing what else he could do or say to make any of this better as the scene played out, the fragments of Jal's screams echoing through the air. But she flinched away, curling herself up into a tight little knot. 

He saw how the man – her lover– betrayed her, how she ran and they hunted her and how finally, finally, she had no choice but to succumb to what they wanted. 

The figures blinked out. And now he could hear the prayer she was muttering, over and over.

~ Take me from the darkness, ~ she was thinking, ~ Take me, wrap me up in you, give me your heat and your light. Don't let me go back there again. Please let it stop, please let it stop, please let it stop... ~

He was silent for a long time, feeling her shuddering anguish drifting in and out of his mind. She was as afraid as he was of this – her mind was an empty desert, stretching into nowhere. Only odd nightmares appeared to fill the horizon occasionally, strange stunted shapes. 

~ I'm sorry, ~ he said finally. ~ I'm sorry for what they did. ~

She lifted her head, the moonlight cutting her face into shapes of white and black. ~ What do you have to be sorry about? ~ she said bleakly. ~ It wasn't you, it wasn't your fault. ~

She was hiding something. He felt it appear suddenly as she spoke, a dark clot floating over her thoughts.

~ Jal? ~ he murmured, reaching out to her again. And again, she flinched away, shaking her head. ~ Why don't you want me to see? ~

~ Nothing, ~ she gasped. ~ It's n-nothing. ~

~ It something, ~ he persisted gently. He reached out through the link, falling deeper into her mind. It was like sinking into quicksand and for a moment, she didn't resist then that strange darkness emerged again, and curious, he tried to see it—

~ Keep away! ~ she snarled, her face stricken. Panic thundered in her thoughts, a bruised purple. ~ I don't even know you! I don't want you in my head! ~

~ Well, you've got me in your soul, ~ Cern snapped back furiously. Couldn't she see he hadn't asked for this either? ~ The way I see it, there's two ways to deal with this. We can fight it, or we can go with it. ~

~ I don't want you to see! ~ she threw at him. The link was trying to pull them together. He caught a glimpse in his mind, a glimpse of a blade...a blade shaped like a dragon, a...a...blood-gift.

~ A blood-gift? ~ he thought, and didn't realise she had heard it.

Her face went waxy-white. ~ Get *out*! ~ she screamed. ~ Not your place! Get *away* from me! ~

Her rage erupted into his head like black floodwater, and the link was severed.

****

Ruby Luthman was cold.

She was always cold. There was ice inside her that never melted and underneath was trapped her shrunken and drowned soul. She didn't understand it; times when she had been swathed in happiness, when sunlight followed her steps like a slave seemed to be only yesterday.

Then Cougar Redfern had taken away the sun and given her the chilly, distant beauty of the Nightworld. 

She stared at the photo that sat on her mantelpiece. It was a boy, a boy caught off-guard with his head thrown back in pure laughter and joy, green eyes leaping even in the frozen stillness of the image. A shapeshifter, with tousled blond hair and tan skin, a creature of desertland and daylight.

She wanted him. Jepar Jubatus was the warmth in this coldness of hers.

And he had been taken from her. She couldn't stand that, no, she wouldn't bear it. He couldn't love anyone else – couldn't he see how she needed him so desperately it filled her every waking second? She wanted the sunlight that encircled him, to take it and make her own so she could be the carefree girl she once was.

"You're in pain."

She started at the voice and spun.

Bane Malefici was on her long couch, his feet on one armrest and his head on the other. She felt wracking fear at the sight of him that made her scream feverishly, "Leave me alone! Haven't you done enough?"

"You're always angry when you're afraid," he murmured thoughtfully. "You're terrified by me."

She threw the first thing that came to hand at him. A small cry escaped as she realised it was her photograph, her precious photograph. He caught it in one hand without even bothering to sit up. 

"Temper, temper."

"Leave me alone!" she shouted, picking up a clock and throwing that at him too. It missed and hit the wall. 

"Alone?" His voice softened, like a gauzy veil laid over diamond. "I don't think you really want to be alone, Ruby Luthman. I'm sure you've tired of it by now."

How could he see what no one else had? How could he know that she felt that she had become invisible, that however loudly she beat against the bars of this immortal prison of a body, no one saw or heard her? 

She could break iron bars. She couldn't make friends.

"Believe it or not," he purred with ephemeral softness, "I'm here to help."

"Help? I remember the last time you *helped*."

She had been nearly changed, and so full of wonder at the world. And then Bane Malefici had come to her door and looked at her with cool, unfathomable eyes.

"Hello," he had said, his azure eyes old beyond his years, infinite and primal. "So you're the illegal vampire my brother's been making. Well, your ticket to immortality just got torn up, sweetheart."

She had tried to slam the door in his face and he had caught it, pushed it open so hard she was thrown off her feet and sauntered in.

"I've told my family *all* about you...they're perfectly prepared to kill you now." The boy had glanced about him. "Nice place. Unless you want it razed to the ground, I'd recommend you listen very closely."

She had looked at his cold, striking face and seen not one shred of compassion.

"Now," he had said, "What am I to do with you? I could kill you I suppose, but you're so full of potential."

She had quivered, under that bright pitiless smile. "Please..."

"I've heard a good many of those in my time, believe me," he said calmly. She hadn't realised the wordplay; it hadn't struck her until long after that Blue had a sense of humour, strange and glazed though it was. "How would you like to strike a deal with the devil?"

What choice had she had?

He gave her immortal life and she gave him her loyalty whenever he called upon it, before all others. Couagr Redfern had run away believing her dead, the Redferns had supposed Blue made her a ghoul and she, she had been forced to live a shadowed half-life in that guise, until she finally escaped.

And the devil had come to collect. Time had added only beauty and ice to his boundless eyes. 

"W-what do you want?"

"I've come to collect on our little deal, but of course, you knew that." He shrugged. "I let you live for a reason and this is it. I want you to help me with something. And I'm prepared to offer you something else."

"Why?" she whispered, her crimson eyes soft and glimmering as a glass of wine turned in light. 

"Z," he answered and laughed. "I can recite letters of the alphabet too. Why? To make sure you deliver, my dear. And what I'm prepared to offer you, well, I think it'll interest you."

He glanced at the photograph in his hand. "Jepar Jubatus," he said. "You want him, don't you. In fact...you crave him. But there's that matter of his soulmate. A dragon, isn't she? So you can't kill her."

"H-how do you kn-know all this?" she said, fascinated. 

"I have this lump of tissue in my skull called a brain, and occasionally I put it use," he drawled. "What I'm offering you is Jepar Jubatus. I'm prepared to make you a hex that will draw him to you. He'll be yours, my dear, and all I want in return is one little thing..."

She stared at him, lips half-parted, her voice filled with wonder. She was suddenly radiant, summer bloomed in her face. "You can do that? But you don't have magick..."

He threw the frame in the air casually and stared at it, his eyes leaping with incandescent silver lights.

It exploded in a flare of black fire. Ruby screamed in anguish as a fine grey dust settled around the room.

"Wrong," he murmured. "I acquired dragon magick quite a while ago. It's been a most useful boon."

"My picture..." she moaned, on her knees, hands sifting through the dust.

"Why have an icon when you can have the real thing?" that soft, deadly voice hissed. She looked up to see his eyes, impossibly blue and strikingly chill, watching her idly. "What do you say, Ruby Luthman?"

She looked at him. Alluring, stunning as the first storm of winter, and filled with the same uncaring destruction. But holding out to her something so exceptional, so beautiful, she had to have it. She had to.

Her voice was a scant whisper. "Yes. Yes."

"Good." He stood up suddenly, fluid as a jungle beast cut in blue and white. "We go now. I'll enlighten you on the way..."

She didn't dare ask where they were going.

Because if she followed in his path, she was going into the night.

****

A clatter made Jal blink, and she was back in the house, staring at the same face and feeling her mouth hanging open in sheer shock. The saltshaker had fallen onto the table and spilled onto the cloth.

She could see the waves crashing in his indigo eyes. And just looking at his astonished expression, she knew that the rhythm of their hearts beat as one. Breath for breath and pulse for pulse.

She was gasping hard, trying to wrap her mind around this thing, this reshaping of her very essence. She had felt him, part of her *soul*, part of her that felt as if he belonged, and yet she knew nothing about him. 

But she had felt that memory rise, that other memory that she denied even herself. Because it was so terrible, so shameful...because it meant that it was all her fault. She couldn't let him see that.

"Oh, you are *kidding* me," a disgusted voice said. Jal could feel the panic rising in her, like stampeding horses that she could feel shaking the ground but not yet see. It shook her.

"Please pass the salt?" Cougar Redfern was saying, appalled. She concentrated hard and could see his dazzling face. "What kind of way is that to meet your fated other half?"

"A most savoury way, I'd say," put in Zara coyly. 

"It'd certainly season your life," the lamia boy drawled, his sleepy gold eyes beginning to dance with wicked humour. "Hey Cern, does this mean you're going to be throwing her over your left shoulder..."

"Leave it, Cougar," Chatoya said gently. Her mossy eyes were fixed on Jal's white face, filled with compassion. Jal could barely hear her words for the deafening crash of her heartbeat "This isn't a laughing matter." 

The black-haired boy looked from Jal to Cern, tapping a fork on the table impatiently. "They don't seem to be having much fun, do they?"

Jal could feel the stare of Zara's fiancé resting on her thoughtfully, that cool regard shaking her even more. It was something about his face, the half-formed recognition on it.

The panic routed Jal. She couldn't stay, couldn't sit and pretend it was all right, that she wasn't changed...

She had only ever had one escape for the events in her life that had threatened her safety.

She ran.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I'd love to hear what you have to say!


	9. Part Nine

First off, my vast, humble apologies to those of ye who're reading ::grimace:: I've been up to my myopic eyeballs in exams lately (but I passed so yay!) so I haven't had a chance to write much on here! Thank you so much to all the incredibly fabulous people who commented last time round :-) You made my week! All the proper thanks are below the story J Thank you so much!

Anything you have to say would be adored, pored over, adulated and venerated. Any feedback would be adored; it is the literary substitute for chocolate without the calories, and it sweetens life immensely, so I would be unbelievably grateful if you'd be kind enough to send it! Tell me what you think, what you'd like to see or wouldn't!  
  
I hope y'all enjoy :-)

Nightfire Part Nine

Jal didn't know what she was expecting when she ran. Freedom? Forgetting? Oblivion?

Certainly she wasn't thinking at all as she pelted desperately out of the house. The air outside was a hot slap in the face, hitting her with the heat of summer sunshine and the sweet scent of cut grass. 

She heard footsteps after her – someone shouting her name –but she was vaulting over the garden gate by them, the wind deliciously light and teasing in her hair. Jal fled to the place where she could give voice to her sorrow, where the night would swallow her grief and make her whole...

The change came unexpectedly like water sliding over her skin, painful grindings and crackings in her body. She fell forward, unable to keep upright as her legs folded and reformed, she would hit the ground—

A glossy wolf landed, with a golden tinge to its coat and a red blaze running down between its ears. And she ran and ran and ran, howling out her heart in a wild, eerie song until the woods were a dark-green blur and the horror was far behind. 

She felt she could run forever.

And the shape that followed her, giving easy, loping chase, went unnoticed.

****

"I take it that went well," remarked Cougar, who had obviously been spying on Jal's escape through the window. "Going on the way she's nothing more than a cloud of dust in the distance."

"Shut up." Cern heard the unusual harshness in his voice, but was too shaken to apologise.

"I know that girl from somewhere." Dark's black eyes were narrowed and brooding. "I can't place her."

"So that was why all the funny looks," said Zara chirpily, deliberately calming the atmosphere. He could feel her sending soothing thoughts at him like the brush of feathers. "How do you mean you know her?"

"I've seen her face before...in a painting somewhere. It must have been in our vaults...damn, I'm sure it's important." He raked his hands through that dark red, nearly raven hair. "I've got a bad feeling about her. I need to find out where I've seen her."

"Now?" asked the tiny vampire girl. "Can't you get one of the minions to find out?"

"No." An apologetic smile, his voice velvet-deep. "Sorry, mienne, but the painting was in one of the classified vaults. Only thing that's in there are organisations that even the Nightworld doesn't talk about. K'shaia, Pursang, Nightfire." Oddly, Chatoya's mossy eyes widened. "We're talking serious peril here, if I'm right. And I'm the only one who sees what's in there."

Cern didn't want to ask what happened to the people who found the information. He had the feeling he knew. And he could see everyone else looking uncomfortable too.

"Why don't you stay, Zar?" offered Lisa, her voice gentle. "The house is a bit of a mess, but I'm sure we could make room somehow..."

Zara shook her head. "Nah. Where he goes, I go," she admitted. "That's where the fun is."

"You poor sod," Cougar said, glancing over at the Darkstar with pity in his gold eyes.

"It's not so bad," he conceded with a light shrug, half-smiling. "I'd like to think I've corrupted her a bit."

"Hah!" was all Zara said, punching her fiancé in the shoulder. It couldn't have possibly hurt him. "Look guys, I'm sorry I have to leave, but I'll be back very, very soon. A day, maybe two. And...Redfern?"

Cougar tensed, expecting another verbal attack. His eyes went the wary sunlit gold that meant he was angry, and Lisa, sitting nearby, edged away and picked up the closest cushion in case she needed a shield.

"I'm sorry I was so nasty," Zara said. "You just really irritate the hell out of me. But you're still my friend and I have to say, you're a sweetheart when you want to be. So...sort it out. I'm getting tired of your on-off relationship. You should have a bungee cord attached to your back."

"Yeah. I'll try. But it takes two to tango, and it's pretty difficult when one of you is doing the samba."

The vampire girl blinked, her pretty face baffled. Then she grinned. "Learn a new dance."

They were gone not long after in a screech of tyres. 

"He must have been serious," said Cougar mildly, looking at the scorch-marks on the road as evening rolled in, the sky a deepening shade of blue. "Guess Jal's got something she isn't telling us. Cern? Anything to add to this, as the latest member of the 'oh hell, not me too' club?"

He didn't know what to say, but before he could speak, Chatoya, who had been fiddling nervously with her long black hair, pre-empted him.

"I don't know what Nightfire is," she said softly. "But I think it wants Jal."

****

Jal had stopped running finally, hanging her head. All the energy and the fear was run out of her and it had left this kind of numb green sickness that lay in her limbs like slow poison. She was bleeding from a dozen places, but she didn't care. Inside, she was bleeding far more fatally. 

Far away, low baying sounds rose and fell. It was the depths of the night now, the moon swelling above and casting her cold white light onto the world. Not yet full, but becoming bloated on time. Waiting.

Soon. Her wolf-voice whispered exotic words she didn't grasp. Sweet soon, the hunter's moon is coming...

Slowly, her body relaxed, and as if she had thawed into liquid, flowed into human form. And she *ached*.

"Very impressive." She started at the voice, and sat up to see the lean, dark form of Blue Malefici who had struck such terror into her earlier. "I nearly had to stretch myself to keep up."

"What do you want?" Jal snapped, unaware of how wildly her hair was mussed and tangled, how her skin was dotted with mud. Her pale green eyes stood out like chunks of crystal in her face.

"World domination, unequivocal worship...but right now, I'll settle for a chat."

Jal looked him up and down disdainfully, the way she had seen Zara look at Cougar. "Mud settles too." 

"Oh, do be quiet, ancestress," he said softly.

Her heart skipped a beat. No...surely she had heard him wrongly... "What did you call me?"

He laughed delightedly, the sound almost feral. Against the dark green of the woods, his spiky cobalt hair stood out like a leaping flame. "Oh, didn't you know? We're related."

"Over my dead body." 

He was lying, of course. There were no similarities. He was comely beyond the dreams of mortals, pale and blinding. She was ordinary, a tiny golden glow in the dark. Time immortal stood between them.

"No, but not for want of trying," he murmured. "Don't you remember your child, Jallakri? Your bastard half-vampire child? When you changed, it didn't die. Nightfire brought up that sweet child of yours."

"But..." she said faintly. "That's not possible..."

"Oh, it is, dear ancestress. I assure you, it is."

"I was asleep..." Her face was waxen. She would have known, she thought dazedly, if she had given birth to a child. A *child*, flesh of her flesh. "I was lost in the darkness..."

He smiled, a tiny curve of his mouth like the claw of a cat. "Are you still deluding yourself about that? Nightfire made you for a purpose, Jallakri. You may not remember, but you served us very efficiently. *Too* efficiently, and we dropped you into slumber supposedly forever. Obviously, someone erred. I got quite a shock when I discovered you were awake."

It was impossible to imagine this boy being shocked about anything, with his anciently arctic eyes. "You are not my relation."

"The link may be tenuous," he said mildly, "but it is there. Aryana mal Ifiche was the start of my blood line...oh, the name may have mutated a little, but it's close enough to make no difference. Mal Ifiche...Malefici...it means the same thing, my dear; made by evil. And made...by you."

Furious, she struck out. He had moved before she even knew, hitting her so hard her head reeled and his lazy, mocking voice fell harshly onto the air. "The truth isn't pretty, is it? Or have you *really* forgotten?"

She spun, and he was leaning against a tree. Her cheek glowed red-hot with pain. "You're lying!"

"You have, haven't you?" he said, ignoring her. "You don't remember a thing...though you obviously remember Kaajen mal Ifiche. Oh, I know all about you, ancestress. Why did you run away this evening?"

"That's not your business!" But she couldn't stop the memories flooding into her mind. Cern Akafren had come so perilously close to seeing her secret...

"You should learn to shield your mind," he murmured, stretching lazily. "Yes, your revolting little secret. It must eat at you."

"You don't know," Jal said scornfully, secure in her secret's safety. "No one ever knew. Not even Kaajen."

His laugh was glacial. "Why don't I tell you a story?"

"Why don't I rearrange your face into a more pleasing expression?" she suggested. 

And Jal was surprised to find she actually had to fight to keep from carrying out her threat. Anger was soaring through her veins. Come too close, her bladed wolf-voice growled, and I'll burn you away. 

He didn't heed her. And for the first time, Jal noticed something very strange. His eyes weren't pure blue. Just around the iris there was a thin ring of flaring gold. For a second, it made her catch her breath in alarm. Golden flame, like Kaajen's eyes...

"Once upon a time," he began, pacing casually, "in a far-off land, there lived a girl. She wasn't a princess, she wasn't heartbreakingly beautiful and she certainly wasn't particularly intelligent. But she was dedicated to her Goddess, and every moon she would go to her temple and she would pray to her Goddess.

"Who knows what she prayed for? Maybe she prayed for a long life, or beautiful children or a man who loved her. But I don't think so. I think she prayed for darker things, and when no answer came...she chose another path. An older path, that led into darkness..."

****

"Bless my family, and bring us good harvest. May the air and the earth and the water and fire be one with us, as they are one with you. May we be one with the land and the land with us. So mote it be." 

The statue she prayed to was of the Crone-goddess; a stern, withered woman. Although she knew the glower in her eyes came only from two obsidians set there, they seemed to hold a question: do you dare? 

She risked a glance around, one hand stealing involuntarily to the charm lying in the hollow of her throat, warm as her own skin. No one to her left. Only one to her right, a weeping girl who called the name of one she had lost over and over. 

The temple was filled with light and air. She had always thought it beautiful, a serene haven away from the unyielding heat that made every breath like swallowing the sun. Here, the air was cool, light dancing from white pillars that stretched up, she imagined, to the stars. 

Alone, then. Good. 

The edges of the flat charm dug into her hand. Should she? Yes. She had gone this far. Jal tugged sharply and the chain around her neck tightened almost unbearably for a second then snapped with a tiny chime, the loops of metal pooling around her hand.

She knew the symbol so well. It was one of the forbidden five. The signs that were not to enter the temple, that were sorcery and death, black power beyond reckoning. And Jal had brought it in.

Again, her thin, shaking fingers traced the delicate lines. The gold glowed softly, as if it drank in the light of the temple and consumed it, turning into this image of…she hesitated to say it. But the word crept into her head unbidden. *Evil*.

A draak-on, the sorcerer had called it, and he had whispered the word in his rattling voice as if it were a demon to steal her soul. "Sacred to the goddess, to her dark side, child," he had hissed. He had scared her, with his mad smile and darting movements. "The face they keep hidden from all but her chosen-ones." 

"Why?" Jal had breathed, fascinated despite herself.

He cackled. "Because it is uncertainty. Do you think your Goddess is only merciful and gentle? Is life that way, Ra's child? She has many faces, and not all of them are that of life. She is floods and sandstorms and famine. She cleanses and reaps and then grows anew. Darkness is in her, as well as the light. And this draak-on is part of that; the bringer of sorrows...but also the granter of desires."

And how she desired. How that craving took over her waking world. 

Oh, more than *anything*, she wanted peril and ardour, to feel emotions that would carry her away, to feel excitement that could make her heart scream and soar, that could free her from this mundane place. End her loneliness, her outcast isolation and make her wanted, needed, accepted.

She smiled suddenly, her eyes glowing with determination. And she would have it. She would.

Jal placed the charm onto the statue. Her shaking fingers were sliced open by its keen edges; all to the good, she wouldn't have to do it herself. She spread the blood over the gold, and whispered the words that had been caged in her too long. 

"Grant me my heart's desire."

Silence, while a kind of relief mixed with sadness bubbled in her and she thought, it hasn't worked...

The winds blasted into the temple. 

Fierce, grating, awful, they dragged in the sand from outside, scouring it over her flesh until she screamed with the pain but could not even hear her own voice under the dreadful elemental howl. All the time, she prayed to the Goddess, she begged for her life. Anything, anything!

And suddenly the air seemed to have a voice. Through the unearthly sounds of the air, she felt words that coiled into her ears as soft as a snake's hiss. 

"Open your eyes." And though the words were so soft, so gentle, thunderstorms struck behind them. Jal could no less have disobeyed than she could have taken back her actions.

"What is it you ask?" The unearthly voice drowned all else, feminine undertones ringing in it. 

The longing flared in her heart, sharp as the pain that ate at her eyes, granting her the courage to answer. 

~ You know, ~ she thought. ~ You know what I wish. ~

No answer, but the space was filled with the rage of the elements that arched her back and stirred her blood to scream, that snatched her hair with bladed fingers. "And will you pay the price of your desire?"

Pain. Her body and mind beginning to spiral away, that thrilling wind-torn scream taunting her ears and plucking at her limbs. Away from this one chance that would be all she ever had. "Yes!" she screamed with heart and soul, the need reaching into her voice. "Whatever the price, I shall pay!"

A long pause, and the winds fell silent, the pain evaporating into a sweet, euphoric bliss. "Then you shall never be alone."

****

Ruby had been waiting for her opportunity to do what Blue had asked. The thought of his promise kept her patient, kept her strong. When the two vampires left, Ruby slipped into the house, unnoticed, uncared for. It was easy, and she left carting two heavy bags with her, silent as a wraith. Dead, perhaps, already.

Soon, she thought delightedly. Oh, soon.

****

"You want to explain that comment, Toya?" said Cougar with an attempt at casualness, his golden eyes pinned on her. "Or should we wait for the ominous roll of thunder?"

She shivered slightly, averting her gaze. "You remember when Blue was hunting me?" she said so quietly Cern had to strain to hear. He didn't have a clue what she was on about. 

"I do seem to recall a time of frantic homicidal activity, yes," the lamia drawled. "What about it?"

"He...told me that he worked for an organisation called Nightfire. And when he found me earlier, he said he was here on 'Nightfire' business. What if it's Jal?" Her face was miserable. 

"Nightfire did something to her," Cern said softly. He felt three pairs of eyes snap to him. "But it wasn't an organisation as such. In her time – and it felt like thousands of years back – it was some kind of cult. She was in love with one of the members, and he tried to make her a sacrifice to the temple."

"Unfinished business, then?" suggested Lisa. "I have to say, that does sound like Blue. After all, he came here to find Toya."

Cern looked from one serious face to the other. Chatoya had her hands pressed to her temples, as if trying to erase her memories. "What happened then? I didn't even know about this Blue guy until you told me and from what you're saying, he caused some serious damage."

"The short version is this," said Cougar flatly, his voice vibrating with emotions Cern couldn't qualify. "He hunted Toya because he thought she knew how to wake dragons. It was actually her brother – who Blue killed by the way – and his spell had just siphoned off its power. The power passed to Toya without her realising, and Blue got the shock of his damned life when he tried to kill her. He couldn't, and he left."

"Basically, he's bad news, and he's after Jal," surmised Lisa grimly. Cern could see that there was far more to it than Cougar's brief summary, but he didn't ask. "So the question is, how do we protect her?"

"Any way we can," said Cern shortly. "Look, it's getting late. I'm going to wait up for her." He saw Cougar's sly grin, Chatoya's arched eyebrows. "To *talk*. Get some sleep...tomorrow, we find Blue."

Chatoya and Lisa left shortly after. Toya looked pale and drained, but somehow determined. 

"I'm going to catch some sleep in a while," Cougar said, yawning. "First...I have a craving for rare steak."

Cern wrinkled his nose. "You would. There's some in the fridge."

The lamia returned shortly, looking slightly baffled. "Uh...there is no meat of any sort in the fridge or freezer. Or anywhere in the house. Or anything containing meat."

"What?" Cern blinked, disbelieving. "Don't be dumb, Cougar, I had bacon for breakfast."

"I'm not," he insisted. "The house is empty of meat. None at all."

And he wasn't kidding either. Cern stared at the freezer containing only ice-cream and vegetables an hour later, having turned the house upside in a futile search. The vampire was wearing the exact same baffled expression as he was. "This is ridiculous!" he said furiously. "No one would want to steal all our meat!"

But patently, someone had.

****

Shaking, Jal stared at Blue's cold face. "Your temple was destroyed that day, Jallakri. You wanted excitement, passion, thrills. It was *you* that called Kaajen mal Ifiche, that called the Nightworld to that place. And you are paying the price."

Yes, that was true. It was she who had summoned Kaajen.

He had come from nowhere, in the arms of that same sandstorm that whipped the skies in a fiery frenzy and tore the temple apart. And as sand fell back to the ground in a cascading curtain, he had stepped from it with the air shimmering around him and not a grain of dust on him anywhere. 

The Nightfire Temple had risen in place of the old one and the endless night had fallen upon her land. But she hadn't cared; she had thought Kaajen loved her, she had no longer been alone.

That was her secret, her phoenix rising shrieking from the ashes to haunt her heart again. 

"Nightfire made you," he hissed. "We can destroy you...and we will."

"I have a right to life!" she cried.

His eyes were dark and terrible, filled with absolute cruelty. "No. You gave up that right when you became the monster you are." He shrugged. "You must have a lot of control. Try and keep it that way. I rather like having the monopoly on homicide round here."

"I don't remember!" she screamed.

"So?" The cold voice was slick on her ears as oil. "You aren't required to remember. All I ask of you is that you don't try anything intensely stupid like putting up a fight. I will kill the monster, Jallakri, because creatures like you and like it can no longer live. There is no use for you."

"I am *not* going to lie at your feet and die!" she hissed, rage making her eyes glow a sudden, vivid red, as if two pools of blood sat in her stare.

He slid into the shadows. "I thought you might not. But do you know what?"

His voice was a fading whisper that clung to the furthest reaches of her senses.

"Go quietly, go screaming...you'll die all the same."

She fled, far from his amused and chilly voice, far from the memories of what she had done. Back to the only place of safety she had now, back to the people who didn't know and couldn't guess her secret. She needed company, she needed to tell them about Blue...or tell them some of it.

He would kill her otherwise, she felt certain.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? All would be slavishly adored!

Thank you with all my heart to these amazing people:

Dee: You probably could see Jal and Cern a mile off...I probably deserve to be shot for that. Yeah...the whole 'discovering your soulamte nad falling instantly in love' thing doesn't intrigue me as much. I like conflict better :-) And the idea of loving people who *aren't* your soulmate. Ruby is messed up :-) I mean, she's stalking *Jepar*. Blatantly warped :-) I love writing FoF - and if you like it too, that's a double bonus! Thanks so much!

Ice Princess: ::beams:: Thanks so much! I'm totally elated that you like the story! Cern and Jal - they're interesting to write because they don't know each other at all. It's quite bizarre. And Ruby, well, she's kind of terrified of Blue because he wasn't exactly nice to her last time they met....quite the opposite! Anyways, thank you so much - and I'm sorry this took so long!

Katherine: Hiya! ::grins:: Thanks so much - I'm really knocked out! Thank the French for Chatoya's name - chatoyer in means 'to shimmer', and wow, I'm gobsmacked that there's some cute puppy running round with her name :-) Blue...I don't know if he can ever be nice. It's not his nature. He'll go where he wants to. Thanks!

Persephone: I-karumba, if you just read all of this, you have my admiration :-) It's a bit of a saga! ::grins:: Cougar's a lot of fun to write, because he's just so...himself. Arrogant, kind of sweet in a moody way...I have no idea how he ended up that way! There are...six other stories in this series I think ::thinks:: Flamechild, Heartsong, Darkstar, Trifolia, Ouroboros and Shimmer. I keep meaning to put 'em up. Blue...I don't think he'll ever be the deranged one - he's perfectly sane. He'll be what he wants :-) Which I think will be fun - the next story's about him. Thanks everso!

Taito's Child: I only discovered FFNet in October. And I love it - it's just like, *wow* I didn't know this much fanfiction *existed*. It's insane! ::grins:: Thanks for reviewing - and for putting me on your favourites list. I'm honoured! What are you on TT under? (I don't recognise the email addy.) Many, many thanks!


	10. Part Ten

Hiya! Sorry this took so long! Anyways, the next one won't be out for at least a week because I'm off to France on a school trip. Thank you so much to the lovely Me: who I humbly obey, and to Wind Dancer – hey, don't apologise for not reviewing! I love it when you do!

Anything you have to say would be utterly and madly adored :-) Please brighten my day and tell me!

Ki

Nightfire Part Ten

When Jal crept in, exhausted and shaken beyond belief, the house lay silent, darkness coiled around it like a cobra scaled with starlight. She slipped upstairs to her room, wanting only the brief freedom of slumber.

She stopped when she got in the door. The moonlight was strained through the thin curtains, casting the room in a silvery, magical miasma of light. And it fell on the sleeping form of Cern Akafren. 

Jal stared at him. He must have been waiting for her, his head laid on his arm. Most people she had known had seemed gentled and vulnerable in sleep; but there was a hardness that came out in his face. For a moment, she debated with herself, then padded over and shook him, careful not to let their flesh touch.

"Bugger *off*, Cougar," he said without opening his eyes, voice thick with sleep. "I told you what to do when Thom's sleepwalking."

"He sleepwalks?" said Jal, intrigued, before she could stop herself.

"Have you been at the helium again?" the boy said groggily, then opened his eyes. "*Jal*?"

He sat up so fast their heads cracked together. There was a moment of blinding pain, doubled by the link.

"Ouch!" 

"Shit, that's a little more of a tête-à-tête than I was aiming for."

"Yes, it's me," she said grumpily, rubbing her forehead. He had sat up, looking at her with huge, questioning eyes. She felt all her nerves jump into life. "I'm...I'm sorry I ran away earlier. I was scared."

"What of?" 

She shrugged and perched on the bed beside him. His hair was tousled, softly wavy as the ocean on a calm day, his voice husky with sleep and mellower than usual. "You. Me. Us. What it meant."

"It doesn't have to mean anything." He didn't move closer, simply kept his distance. "It's up to you, Jal."

"But I *do* want it to mean something," she cried shrilly, frustrated, then regretted it immediately. "Oh...I didn't mean to snap." She fiddled with the edge of the duvet. "Why is it so difficult?" 

"Murphy's Law." She glanced at him, bemused. "Anything that can go wrong, will."

"You think this is wrong?" Her stomach dropped away.

He sighed. "Jal, I sat up all night for waiting for you to come back. Now, maybe etiquette says I should have run after you begging forgiveness and waving diamonds in true movie style, but for me, speaking as an emotional retard, i.e. a man, that's pretty good."

"Oh." 

"What do you mean 'oh'?" he said indignantly. "That's not what you're supposed to say."

Jal laughed. He sounded so put out! "You keep forgetting, your world's still new to me. In my homeland, men weren't expected to do anything for a woman. Some did, but by law, the beasts were worth more."

"Welcome to the twentieth century," he said dryly. "Where it takes full-on grovelling, constant apologising and a lot of expensive gifts before you kiss and make up."

"You don't have to do any of that," she said matter-of-factly. "It doesn't mean anything to me." 

"Who said anything about me?" His eyes danced delightedly, but the words were too like Blue Malefici's. She pushed the thought away to find him watching her thoughtfully, an odd wistfulness in his face.

"What?" she said nervously, as he sat up straight, his gaze starry and intent. There was that odd, shy smile on his face that she had noticed before and thought to be so at odds with this calm, astute boy.

"Would you mind if I kissed you?"

Jal blinked and felt warmth steal up her face. "I don't know." She knew what would happen if he did. But she thought perhaps she could stop it this time, control that darkness prowling within. But why else had she woken him? She needed him to help her, to help her fight. 

She hesitated, then said so fast that the words tumbled out, "But I'd like to find out."

****

The night twined around him, lazy and rich as a stretching cat. Bane Malefici yawned as he unlocked the door to his home. It had been difficult to commission, deep enough into the woodland of Ryars Valley to be hidden from prying eyes, but finally he had found a building firm willing to construct this place, three years ago, when Chatoya Irkil had thwarted all his attempts to kill her...just in case. 

A flash of her face fell into his head. She had grown sweeter, he thought lazily, and stronger, and that veil of silky black hair a little longer. Yet those ravishingly innocent eyes were still as piercing, full of sinkable green softness and jungle depths. 

That wildness in her was...intriguing.

Such strange and gullible creatures, the people here; and another of them sat demurely in his lounge. He had felt the presence in his house half a mile away, for...acquiring...dragon powers and senses had given him an edge on the world without any of the disadvantages, like actually being a slavering, perilous reptile and thus a large walking target for misguided Daybreakers. 

"I take it from the reek of festering meat you did it, then?"

Ruby started as he sauntered in. Those red eyes were wary, fearful. Wise girl. "Yes. It was easy."

"Well, you were hardly outwitting the Secret Service...that's only part-payment, by the way. I have something else for you to do." 

Her pale skin went even whiter until it was smooth and flawless as a fresh snowfall. "But...I..."

"My dear, I'm hardly going to give you your deepest desire on a platter. There's *work* involved and alien concept though it may be, hard work." Those eyes seemed to have swallowed the bitter deeps of the night, and Ruby thought she saw the sullen moon caged and revolving in his pupils.

"I know what hard work is," she said shortly, a coral flush sprinkling her cheeks.

He fixed her with a colder than the misty breath of winter. "I find that hard to believe."

"You would." Wonder in her voice at her own daring. "I spent years hiding from your cursed family."

"It couldn't have been difficult. Their brainwaves tend to fall a little short of the beach, as my half-brother's complete lack of sense proves." Her wild eyes grew startled as he made no threat. Honestly, Blue reflected, people seemed to think him completely incapable of holding a rational conversation.

"I wish I'd killed him," she said vengefully. Vibrant hatred blossomed on her face, but her eyes remained lost, the helpless hopeless eyes of someone dying from the inside out. 

He shrugged slightly, watching this graceful, hating creature closely. "All things come to she who waits."

"I ran for three years," she announced suddenly, her voice leaping like hungry foxes. "Always running, because of Cougar Redfern, pretending to be sweet and innocent and anything I had to be to get by." She gave a harsh, too-old laugh. "Men. They're like computers – turn them on, use them, and get yourself a better one quick. Some of what I've done might shock even you."

"Perhaps," he murmured. "I don't claim to have seen all the horrors the world holds." His mouth curved with tantalising slowness, arcing like a scimitar. "But I plan to add to them. Why don't you run along now, and take that mass of rotting flesh with you. It hardly matches the décor."

As the threat registered on her senses, Ruby flinched back.

"Get some rest," he said mildly. "Or you may be getting it in peace. Things are going to get dangerous."

She slipped past, her anger dying like a rose struck by frost, trying not to touch him.

No rest for the wicked? Blue Malefici slept the rushing, fire-filled dreams of the winged.

****

Jal didn't know what to expect; she had only ever kissed Kaajen, and his had been the shadow-kiss, the kiss of a traitor, asking for everything and giving nothing. She simply waited, half-afraid and half-curious.

Cern looked at her, the same guardedness in his stance. Two strangers, we, she thought. I know him not at all, and he knows nothing of what darkness I hold inside my soul.

A foot apart, they sat, and it might have been miles.

Then he smiled ruefully, and reached to touch her face. She started at the contact, breathing in sharply; it was electrifying, but this time she was prepared for the link that sprang between them like a gateway swinging open, and refused to let it control her.

She met his eyes, turned dark as the murmuring ocean. "It's not so bad," she said. "It's not so bad at all."

As he blinked, Jal felt as if his eyelashes brushed her skin for a moment, as though every sense she possessed had been heightened. The strange, ghostly sensations sent feathery frissons through her.

He leaned forward and kissed her, lips tentatively touching hers; a soft touch that turned into an embrace. Jal was startled by his gentleness – the wolf-part of her, newly roused, didn't understand how passion could be tamed and made sweet; it howled for wildness and fervour, while she drowned in this dreamy bliss.

The link drew up around them like wings of light, sweeping and sparkling, making her head spin. She experienced his thoughts, his feelings too, his shock, his marvel...he had kissed a lot of people, but...not like this. Being afraid and yet wanting to more than anything. 

Yes, she thought, it was frightening, but...Jal discovered she liked the feeling.

"Oh," she breathed in soft disappointment when he drew away, unaware of the vivid hunger burning in the depths of her stare. "Do you have to stop?"

His eyes widened, gulping the gloom. "I don't think I've ever met anyone quite as honest as you."

I want you, she thought silently. You are mystery, and fire in darkness, and you draw me to you with a power beyond anything I can understand. You are my moon, and I will howl for you in the endless night.

"Will you tell me about you?" she asked suddenly. "I want to understand you. I want to know why..."

Why you feel, why your eyes hold such mysteries, why you are sad, why you are happy, why, why, why... She had no words, so instead, she reached out to him and let her soul speak. And what it said was this:

~ I want to know why you are. ~

He smiled sweetly at her, and it surprised Jal to realise that she knew the curve of that mouth, and the feel of that wavy hair. She had known these little things, these incidentals with Kaajen too, but they had not touched her so powerfully, as though the restless tides pitched her from crest to foaming crest.

"The feeling's mutual," he told her almost shyly, as though it was hard for him to say these things. "But..."

She knew what he wanted to say without hearing and smiled back. She understood at least this small piece of him. "But it will take more than a night," she finished. Jal kissed him again, to feel that sensation searing through her, to be lifted on fiery wings. "Sleep be sweet," she said softly, sure he would dream of her.

****

The next day dawned lazy and hazy, bringing Lisa and Chatoya, come to help get rid of the previous night's leftovers (minus meat). The sun cast a golden glow onto everything as the five of them sat scattered in the sitting room except, apparently, Cougar Redfern's temper, when Jal told them about Blue's threat.

"...does he have to come back here and screw everything up again?" the lamia shouted, mid-tirade, and threw a plate. It shattered against the wall, food turning the carpet chilli-red. He slumped down, seething.

"Calm down, hon, before you rupture something," sighed Lisa softly and came to lounge nearby, leaning her head on the vampire's legs as she lay back, sunbathing in a patch of light from the patio doors. 

"Do I look like I come with matching cushions and a three year guarantee?" Cougar demanded, his voice edged as a mountain winter, giving Lisa what Cern called his Evil Eye; golden eyes narrowed, barest hints of fangs showing and face tight. A look that said: dangerous and combustible. 

Lisa scrutinised him. 

"No," she said with a wicked glitter in her eyes. "But you do look like you come with legs, arms and a back, so in my view, that qualifies you as a chair."

The lamia scowled and reverted back to his diatribe. "Why can't he just leave us all alone?"

"Because that's no fun," Chatoya murmured. Her eyes were oddly livid, though the witch's expression remained serene. She waved a hand and the plate leapt back together, glowing with deep green witchfire. 

"Maybe he's crazy," Cern said with a slight shrug. Jal's mind was a shock to his senses, a blend of lime and sun-warmth as he spoke to her. ~ I don't use telepathy much...but I think I'd like to give it a try today. It's the only way we're going to get any privacy. Well...the others will be polite enough not to listen. ~

~ Mmm... ~ was all she said, engulfed in the tidal peace of his thoughts.

~ Hey! That tickles... ~ His laughter was an aquamarine sea frothing into her mind. 

"I have to go," Lisa said abruptly. She grabbed her bag and folders that were strewn about. "I have to talk to Rob Slivan about a biology project."

"Can't it wai—" Cougar began as she strode out. They heard the snap of the door. "You know, maybe biology is more interesting than I thought. I mean, I'm bang on the side of anatomy, but..."

"Alternative 'b'," pointed out Cern, "our girl's got something on her mind."

"I'll go talk to her," Chatoya said. Her mossy eyes were worried. "The Blood-Rose Café's open, isn't it? There's nothing a good talk and some Ben and Jerry's won't solve. The only two men you can trust."

"Say that to me next time I save you from assassins," Cougar muttered darkly, but Jal saw his grin as the black-haired girl swatted him. "I'll take your bags for you. See you in hell, or high school as we call it."

****

Lisa was a slinky shape on the shimmering horizon by the time Chatoya got out of the house. She was planning what to say to her friend when she saw someone she wasn't expecting at all, and her thoughts were washed away by a surge of blinding fury.

She recognised the careless grace the boy walked with, recognised that unmistakable cobalt hair and the chill-white skin of someone who was untouched by the light. And this time she wouldn't run.

She would *fight*. Bane Malefici had hunted and haunted them all long enough. Why on earth was he terrorizing Jal, who was perfectly innocent? She would make him leave, Chatoya decided. *Make*. 

And this time, she was prepared. She never slept without a knife now, never took one step without a blade. The cool of the metal was reassuring, wound up inside her hair, hanging in a coil at the nape of her neck.

She gave chase.

Blue was walking into the woods in those long, flowing strides, ducking into the gloom. Why he was going there, she didn't know. She followed, wishing she wasn't wearing such a short top as branches and thorns nipped at her. Time eased by as she tore her way through the forest depths. 

He disappeared abruptly through a screen of vast ferns interspersed with willows, and was gone from her sight. Cursing, she crossed the fifty metres or so of thick brambles between them slowly; he had moved through like a phantom...easy, of course, when you had vampiric strength, but it took her minutes.

Finally, she pushed aside the heavy fronds and stepped into a living, breathing dome of soft green light. It filtered through in tiny spatters of light, like a giant kaleidoscope, luscious and cool.

He was lying flat out on his back in the centre of the glade, ankles crossed.His hands were linked behind his head, the proud face tilting up to the light. Against his cheekbones, those long eyelashes made rich black crescents. 

In the peace and solitude of the place, his wild hair and starkly modern clothes should have been out of place, but somehow, he melded into the background. Perhaps it was his sheer stillness or the way he relaxed completely. She could see his chest rising and falling in slow, even breaths.

The fronds swung aside with a silent rush as she stepped in. "Nice place," Chatoya drawled. "But it's hardly the Ritz."

Those sooty eyelashes lifted slowly and smoothly, as if he wasn't at all surprised. 

"Next time you track someone, try not to crash around like a drunken elephant," he advised lazily and shut his eyes again, not even turning to look at her.

He had heard her? Then why had he let her come here?

"What are you doing here?" she demanded, cutting short any ideas of surprising him.

"I was thinking." His lips hardly moved, voice hypnotically dark. "You should cultivate the habit."

Anger welled up in her. This is me, Chatoya thought. I don't *get* angry. Not after last time. Not since I almost lost myself and took them all with me.

But he knows me. 

As much as she hated to admit it, this boy knew her better than anyone else living or dead. And he used that knowledge like a weapon, a sharpened dagger in her back.

"I spent most of the last three years thinking," she said, forcing calm into her voice. "About what you did."

"Thinking and remembering are not the same." He propped himself up on one elbow and did open his eyes then, and as always, the startling, dawn-fresh blue was like a flare of electricity in darkness."But I assume you're referring to that half-breed I dispatched."

"She was my friend," Chatoya hissed. The anger was fizzing like acid, eating away at her. "She was my friend and you killed her for fun."

"It was also my duty. If I went about killing everyone I thought would be fun, I'd never sleep." One eyebrow arched. "And please, at least give your friend her name. Let's not tiptoe about the subject.Sonj Jameson was indeed your friend, and I did indeed slaughter her for fun."

"Did you ask her opinion before you ripped her apart?" she hissed, staring down at him with all the hatred that gathered in her torso in a tight, painful knot; as though someone had lodged a fireball there. 

"I didn't feel it necessary." He gestured to the ground. "As you're obviously so geared up for a world-class argument, why don't you sit down?"

"Why don't you go to hell?"

His lips drew back fractionally, but for a bare second. "I answered that three years ago." 

There was a sharp impact on her legs. She fell forward, her knees jarring on the ground. 

"Now *sit down*," he murmured. There was no sign of the effort it must have taken to telekinetically knock her forwards.

The tables had turned suddenly. 

She had been so sure she would surprise him, so sure he thought she would be the shy, vulnerable creature of three years ago. The creature he had left her. 

But he had known. 

And now the power lay in his hands. For the most part. She still had one or two surprises.

"And don't bother with that knife." Metal sliding coldly along her neck, her hair falling loose as it flew into his hand with a soft snap. 

He turned it in the light. "Good workmanship. At least you have some taste, if not any sense."

Nausea rose in her stomach. She was defenceless now. That was the one thing she couldn't afford to be around this boy.

Her soulmate.

The secret she had kept silent. The secret that would kill her.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? Opinions? It would make me unbelievably happy if you'd tell me what you think!


	11. Part Eleven

Thank you so much to all of you who reviewed last time round :-) Sorry this took so long! I only got back from France (with food poisoning) yesterday. Thank you to the divine Dead Flower (not always this depressing, promise! Anyways…Toya and Blue, the next story.), the incredible Ice Princess (Thanks so much :-) I'm about halfway through now, I think!), the marvellous Me (I have the next few chapters done, they should be up pretty soon…and I have a nice long holiday coming up, so I'll get a lot done then.), the magnificent Myst (Thanks! There'll be more soon...I'm working hard J ) and last but never least, the phenomenal Persephone ( Thanks! I'm writing more as we speak ! ) You're all wonderful!

I'd love to hear what you have to say – it really does make my day, and makes me write faster. All comments, criticisms, questions, rants and raves are absolutely adored. Please tell me what you think!

Kiana

Nightfire Part Eleven

"Hey."

Lisa Ochai looked up at the voice. She should have been in maths, but somehow, she couldn't hack numbers right now. With these fractures running along her emotions, it was hard to be cool and logical.

Cougar Redfern, a dark silhouette against the blazing sun, came and leaned against the wall. "Sitting outside, in lesson-time? That's my prerogative, Lise. I'm the bad one round here, remember?"

"No, you're the big-mouthed stroppy one," she said mildly, trying to raise a smile so he would see she was all right and go away. But it didn't work. "Your brother's the bad one."

"Not always. He was really cute before he learned to talk. Then we realised he was only smiling so much because he'd figured out five easy ways to conquer the planet." The lamia boy squinted down at her face. "So, you want to tell me what's up?"

"Not really." What was up. What a stupid phrase. She was down, down, down, falling into dark places. 

What had it been? Three, nearly four years now. Good years for the most part. Lisa was somewhere between fourteen and fifteen hundred years old now. If her friends had known, their jaws would have hit the floor. All believed she had been born in the sixties. She let them believe that; Lisa had her reasons.

But in her entire life, since she was born in Africa, since she lost her humanity for the sake of a rite, no one had ever affected her like Cern Akafren did.

Affected. It was too meek a word really for the way her heart leapt and her mind and body seemed to fill with exuberant energy. She knew the right words but she didn't even say it to herself. Friendship was all it would ever be, that was all she ever saw in Cern's quiet smile or heard in his voice. That was what she had settled for, and maybe it wasn't and would never be enough, but it was a lot.

Every other drawing in her sketchbook was of Cern. Sometimes, she swore she could draw his face in her sleep. Dark red wavy hair, short and tousled; he wasn't the tidy kind. Cynical eyes the colour of clouds on a summer evening, olive skin and a playful smile, generous beyond sense – he was always in debt. 

Her secret sketches, for her secret emotions. Her secret love, oh, how it hurt, and now, her secret pain.

"No," she said softly, staring at the clouds that moved so uncaring above, at the dark hawk that swooped lower than most did, almost brushing the ground at moments. "It's nothing at all."

Cougar snorted. "Yeah, and that was a pig I just saw flying past."

"How dare you?" shrieked an irate voice as a girl with russet hair and a furious expression slapped Cougar. 

The flabbergasted lamia toppled over, and the girl promptly hauled him up again with preternatural strength and punched him again. "I am *not* a pig—"

"Tali!" A new boy appeared, his clear emerald eyes torn between aghast and amused as he dragged the girl off. "He didn't mean it personally, he definitely didn't know that hawk was you. It's a figure of speech."

"Oh." The girl let go of a now very battered Cougar, her fresh, open face filling with dawning horror. "Oh God, Cougar, I'm so, so sorry...flying in hawk-form always makes my brain shrink…"

"Why didn't you stay in it?" the lamia said sourly, gingerly feeling his jaw. "I could have shot you then."

Alisha Althasson, better known as Tali, pulled a face. "I *am* sorry, Cougar. It's just...been a really long trip. I had to fly back, and idiot here had to run after he crashed the car—"

"What do you mean *I* crashed the car?" the green-eyed boy said in outrage. His longish blond hair caught white and gold in the light. Jepar Jubatus looked like some savannah creature, with his healthy tan and cheetah-fur hair, and in fact was. "Who was it who said 'You've got right of way?'"

"But I did tell you to stop when I realised," Tali protested, as Cougar and Lisa traded resigned glances.

"I believe the whole of your warning went 'Mind that truck,', 'What truck?', *crunch*."

"Yes...well..." The dragon girl faltered, then happiness lit her face. "Anyway, aren't you glad we're back?"

Lisa looked at her lanky shapeshifter friend and his dragon soulmate, both so blatantly content with one another, positively glowing with health and happiness and felt like throttling the pair of them.

"To be honest, you've come at a hell of a time," Cougar said glumly. "You have no *idea* what's happened while you've been gone. I mean, comparatively, colonic irrigation would be more fun."

"Evil cult again?" said Jepar. The lamia boy shook his dark head.

"Insane witches and power-mad shapeshifters?" put in Tali. Cougar glared at her and muttered, "Nope."

"Slaughter of relatives, dark mysterious strangers and a kidnapped friend?"

"Nuh-uh, but kind of close. Worse."

"Oh god," Jepar said. "Britney Spears has another single out."

"Maybe it isn't that bad," Cougar muttered. "But still, pretty close."

"Insane dragons, secretive newcomers and soulmates?" 

"Two out of three," Cougar allowed, shooting a slyly amused glance at Lisa.

Alisha and Jepar, looking intrigued, sat down. "Fill us in," they said in unison.

****

"Well?" The knife spun in the air. Once, twice, deadly flashes that reflected in the endless elsewhere eyes.

"Well what?" Chatoya found voice to snap. No, she wouldn't let him intimidate her. She *wouldn't*.

"Did you really get yourself cut to pieces just to see me? I don't think so, witch of mine, get to the point." The knife thudded into the ground and stood, quivering. "Fast."

"I want to you to get out."

Bane Malefici laughed, and the low sound rippled through the air. "Do you really? I'd like you to strip."

"Leave Jal alone," she continued through gritted teeth, torn between hitting him and kicking him. "She's just some girl. Leave Cougar alone...for gods' sakes, he's done nothing to you. And leave me alone."

"Firstly, you came here." Those eyes burned hellishly against his pale skin, only enhanced by the unending black pupils. "Secondly, Cougar sought *me* out to shout at me. Not exactly endearing himself." His smile was bright as diamond, cold as sorrow. "And...Jallakri. I'm afraid that's impossible."

"Why?" she snarled. How she hated his utter calm, the lack of effort or care in each and every movement. 

He shrugged. "I don't have to explain myself to a mere witch. My business with her does not concern you. And if you dare to meddle, I promise you, I will break you into pieces and listen to your soul's screams."

"She means something to my friends, and you're trying to kill her." The summer sun was stifling, but she didn't feel the heat for the icy fear darting through her bloodstream like a plummeting eagle.

"I think it's time I defined the term 'successful assassin'. Killing people is a large part of my job." His face hardened and sharpened; to her horror, ivory fangs gleamed. "And by happy coincidence, also my hobby."

"You can't kill me." But somehow, she wasn't so certain of that.

"The last person who told me I couldn't do something became geography," Blue murmured archly. Silver wound into his eyes, the web of a poison spider. He stood, so light on his feet and stalked towards her. Just as quickly, Chatoya started backing away.

Edge round him, a voice hissed. He's drawing this out...you're play, not prey. "I think you mean history."

"Not after the grenade. Definitely geography." He grinned, sleek and feral and in an instant had caught her. Chatoya screamed the words of a spell, her hand splayed as green fire seared from it towards him—

He caught her wrist hard and the green crashed into black fire that she stared at with growing dread. Swelling, oily black fire, tainted as his soul. "Dragonfire," she gasped. 

"Quite. Your twin passed it to you, and you...you, my witch, you passed it to me." He laughed again.

Dear Goddess. He had dragon powers...the ability to destroy the world, and it was in the lethal hands of someone who didn't care at all.

****

The morning passed in a husky haze for Jal, a haze of sinking unhurriedly in the mellow voice of Cern Akafren, their minds twining about one another ever more comfortably as they talked, regardless of whether they were face to face or rooms apart.

Minutes passed as they spoke about everything and nothing, became uncaring time. They blended like two melodies that combined to make a song so unique and ever-changing that it would never be heard again.

Between lessons, they met briefly, walking together. Neither saying a word aloud, but while the world passed them by, they moved through it in the silken cocoon of one another. And Jal knew that whatever emerged would be a thing of great and fragile beauty, fluttering in radiance, though it would take a long time to grow. Such a rarity was to be nurtured, to be crafted with care, or it would burn itself up.

~ Is this what love is? ~ she asked him at one point, remembering how she had always thought love to be a wild, raging beast. Not this sweet and simple river, refreshing, full of dozens of tiny surprises and shocks.

He paused, his breath halting briefly. ~ No...love is...more than liking someone. It's something eternal, it can't be captured by words. Just a feeling that makes us want to change all the parts of our soul that shames us. ~ She felt his discomfiture having revealed such a deep belief. ~ Just what I think, ~ he added hurriedly.

~ I didn't think this was love, ~ Jal murmured, smiling at him. ~ Do you think it will ever be? ~

~ That's a difficult question, ~ he said quietly. They were of a height, and those purple eyes as they walked glinted with unsaid words. ~ I don't know, Jal. ~

~ But maybe, maybe in some tomorrow... ~ she whispered silently, in the distant reaches of her soul.

~ One day, ~ he answered. ~ Tomorrow will be today. ~ She hadn't realised how deeply their minds were bound until that moment, that he could hear a thought that was little more than a butterfly's shadow. 

And while they talked, Ruby Luthman watched and obeyed the instructions given to her by a blue-haired boy with a void where his compassion should have lain. Watched, and waited...

****

"I can hurt you more than you can ever imagine," Blue said gently. "*Don't* interfere with me."

"There's nothing you can do to me," she hissed. "I'm still strong."

He smiled. It was warm and amused and almost compassionate. "I'm afraid you're wrong there."

If he had been angry, cold, insane, *anything*, she could have handled it. But his mind was like walking through a maze in darkness, never knowing what pitfalls and horrors lurked around each corner. A maze that changed at every second but above all, a maze that was frighteningly ordinary with the coming of light.

She met those eyes that stretched a beckoning hand from times long gone with age-old recklessness, with that fierce, primal love of killing. 

"Go on then," she said, her throat dry. Her fear beat and writhed like a caged creature. "Kill me."

"Kill? Oh no, that wasn't what I had in mind at all."

And before she could even blink, his hold on her had tightened with a strength that was as unnatural as that silken voice. She blinked and he was smiling. Not coldly, not cruelly, simply as if she amused him. 

His lips parted, fangs glowing with the iridescence of fish scales, and his eyes became heavy with blood-soaked wishes.She knew what he was going to do then. Feed from her again. Leave her pale and lifeless. 

He shook his head. "Wrong again," he whispered.

She closed her eyes rather than see his feline satisfaction. So he had won again. She was helpless again, to be whatever he wished to make of her. And she would pay for that. Like Sonj had paid. Like Josh had paid.

The kiss shocked her.

It was nothing more than a gentle touch on the corners of her mouth at first. But it was enough to make her breath catch in sheer shock and then she had no breath left to catch as his lips touched hers with a tenderness she would have sworn didn't exist.

And then he stopped shielding his mind and she was swamped with sensation that was like standing underneath a waterfall in summer, frozen still so she made not a protest, not a sound. 

Tender was becoming sensual, sensual becoming passionate and she was kissing him back without being aware of anything, not who she was, who he was, nothing except the music of that tumbling stream and letting the feelings wash over her. Wordless moments, subsumed in the depths of ancient sorcery.

But under that tenderness, under the hands that stroked her hair and traced reverent patterns over her skin, there was always *control*. His cold, steady mind holding rule over cold, steady emotions.

Oh, oh gods, if only he would lose control.

If only.

He drew back and she was left trembling in the icy wash of that waterfall delight.

Then she became aware with dawning horror that she was in that willow grove, that she had been kissing the boy with the lazy, fathomless eyes and that cruelly confident smile. Part of her was still lost to the melody of the link, part of her was still lost to the waterfall.

"I can make you fall in love with me," he said calmly. "I can rip your soul in two."

Her stare was filled with liquid pain as the cold words dragged her back into reality. "You..."

"I promise you," he said, the words almost silent, "that if you stop me, I will destroy you. I won't kill you. I will leave you to rot in darkness, to long for friends and love that will never come. You will beg and you will plead..." His eyes no longer silver but black, empty nights. "And no one will ever hear."

Before she could move, the knife flew into his hand and lashed across her wrist. The pain was phenomenal as scarlet gushed down her skin, over his hand and onto the ground. Oh Goddess, he'd hit an artery.

He let go, let her fall, and licked the blood from his hand slowly, his eyes glowing starry silver. Watching her with distant interest as she ripped the sleeve from her top with difficulty, binding it around her wrist. She felt dizzy; Chatoya knew she couldn't afford to lose the blood that darkened the earth and the cloth. 

"Don't try throwing fire at me again," he said softly. "Although if you don't make it out of here, you won't ever be throwing anything. It's a long walk back, witch of mine. *That* was your warning..."

She saw the unmovable cold inside him, the uncaring dark that leapt into his every action. He moved like nothing she had ever seen, every step sleek and hungry and unearthly. Turning at the edge of the glade, he left her collapsed there, his face half in shadow.

"Don't get in my way."

****

"Hey, look who's back!" Cern grinned at Tali and Jepar. Lunchtime, and he and Jal had migrated from the stifling, drowsy heat of the classrooms, out to the campus through the hordes of people lolling around.

"And look what's happened to *you*," the dragon-girl said significantly, giving him a warm smile. Lying on her stomach, she propped her chin onto her hands and turned her attention to Jal. "You must be—"

She stopped abruptly, her ocean-dark eyes widening. Baffled, Cern looked at Jepar, whose face was just as shocked. Both were simply staring at Jal, who dodged behind Cern so he shielded her from their gazes.

"Guys?" he asked. ~ Jal, they aren't going to hurt you. ~

~ They're looking at me. ~ Her voice was shaken, soft with fear. He felt an urge to comfort her, to soothe away her dread and gently let his mind curl around hers like a sleeping kitten. ~ I don't like it. ~

"I'm sorry," Tali was saying. The dragon brushed long tendrils of earth-rich hair from her smooth face. "It's just...how did you say you got here?"

"I woke up," Jal said timidly. Still from behind his back, Cern noticed with something between exasperation and amusement. He stepped sideways and pulled her forward before she could scuttle into his shadow again. "And I was in the woods. That was all. I couldn't remember anything much." 

"This is going to sound really weird," Jepar put in, fidgeting, "but you didn't...howl at the moon, did you?"

"No." Jal's eyes flicked to his and Cern shrugged slightly. He didn't know why Jepar and Tali were being so strange. "I looked at it though," she offered, sitting down. She didn't keep to the shade like most of the other, but sprawled out in the blasting heat with all the devotion of a true sun-worshipper.

"Yeah..." Jepar grinned faintly at the puzzled looks. "Just, um, weird dreams. Might have been the lobster."

"We didn't have lobster," his soulmate reminded him.

"I know, but it would have been nice if we had," he murmured, with a sigh that sounded more like a gentle purr. Jepar, being a feline shifter, had a love of all kinds of seafood.

Tali patted him on the head as though he were some poor roving madman. "All right, Jay, the straitjacket's waiting for you at home."

"Didn't know you were into that kind of thing," Cern said dryly, and laughed as Tali aimed a kick at his shin and hit an incensed Cougar instead. "Jal's a wolf...maybe your dream was just a prophecy, that's all."

"Maybe," the shapeshifter said, his trademark sunny smile creeping onto his face. "Anyway, tell me the rest of the gossip, and let me in on how we're going to kill that bastard Blue...and where's Toya?"

Cougar blinked from his spot in the shade. "She went after Lise..." he said, brow creasing. "But...she didn't catch you up, did she?" He nudged the made-vampire, who looked wearier than Cern had ever seen her, that shapely head resting on Cougar's shoulder in utter apathy. Only the beads in her hair had any colour.

He would talk to her, Cern decided. They had been friends for a long time now, and if anyone could find out what was wrong, it would be him. 

"Nope," the girl muttered, shaking her head. The bright beads clicked in unison. "Haven't seen her today."

"Where would she be?" Jepar demanded. He and Toya had always been close (just *how* close, no one knew, despite the probing of Thom, Cern and Cougar who had a bet on.) and where one was, the other invariably turned up, usually resulting in chaos, due to near-fatal curiosity, and huge amounts of danger.

"I don't know." Lisa closed her eyes, and Jepar frowned, mouthing something at Cougar, who shrugged.

"I still can't believe you've got a soulmate, you mongrel," the cheetah-shifter said cheerfully.

"Why do they call you a mongrel, Cern?" Alisha asked, her intense stare flicking from one to the other. "I keep meaning to ask."

He grinned. "C'mon, Shar, you should be able to guess that one. It's all the different depths of the night running in my blood." Her eyes narrowed, trying to fathom what he was saying. "I'm part vampire, part shifter, part witch. Your good ol' traditional halfbreed."

Cern felt a sudden wrench in his mind and he flinched, thinking it was another of those deadly visions, and instinctively reached out to Jal to check if she was okay.

And found her mind closed off from him. He blinked as she got up suddenly, her golden hair bright as fool's gold in the blazing light. Squinting at her, she seemed a goddess of yore, a feral hunting creature. Was it his imagination, or had something in her face hardened? "Jal? Where're you going?"

Her voice hummed richly, throbbing with a strange resonance. "I have something that must be sorted." She sounded...familiar. Where had he heard her voice like that? "I'll deal with you later."

Cougar wolf-whistled. "Guess we know who wears the pelt in that relationship!"

"Whoever skins the beast," Jal replied, and her crystal-cold eyes fixed on Cougar, shuttered and barren. Unaccountably, the lamia shivered and looked away. What the hell was going on? Her eyes flicked to Cern, and he felt that stare strike a coldness in his soul. "Later."

It was a promise. And some part of him didn't want her to keep it, because in her voice, he heard the hunting howl.

She was gone in an instant, her stride no longer light and hesitant, but sure and stealthy. He thought he heard her growl...but that was stupid, completely insane.

"What was that?" Tali murmured, one eyebrow raising. Nothing much startled her...but he had the feeling that had.

Cern stared after her, and finally realisation dawned. "She gets...scared sometimes," he said mildly. "Defensive. She's had a hell of a time in the past, what I've seen of it. I don't know what happened to her..."

"Find out," Jepar and Tali said. 

"Remember what happened last time someone had a secret?" muttered Cougar, with a pointed glance at Tali, and a gesture towards the four raking scars on Jepar's face and the still-healing scratches on Lisa's bare shoulders.

"Excuse me, oh ye who didn't think to tell us that the vampire you made was certifiable," Lisa said mildly, "you can talk!"

"Babe," Cougar said, fixing her with a smoky stare, "I do a lot more than that. Batteries included."

And far away, Ruby Luthman followed Jal into darkness, and had no awareness of the danger that followed her on shadowed feet. 

**** 

Thoughts, comments, opinions? I'd love to hear what you think!


	12. Part Twelve

Thank you so much to all your lovely people who reviewed last time round :-) I loved hearing what you had to say. Thank you:Dead Flower (I live on the control ::evil laugh:: It's so much fun tormenting characters – the next story is about Toya and Blue :-) Things get interesting.), Dee (I have a lot of fun writing Blue. He has, to quote 'Friends', a quality. I don't know what it is...but it's there! Jal was a part of Nightfire, but she doesn't think she is anymore. All will be revealed! Thanks :-) ), Me (A book report? On the Lord of the Rings? That'd take forever! Thanks everso!) Myst (France was excellent. I haven't had so much fun in yonks!)

I love knowing what you think – comments, crits, questions, thoughts, opinions, I love and welcome them all! Please tell me what you think, how this can be improved, anything!

Nightfire Part Twelve

Bane Malefici was annoyed.

"What do you mean it's wrong?" His voice stayed perfectly calm, but under the serene waters, sharks wriggled. "Are you telling me that you spent enough money to make Bill Gates faint on a piece of technology that *doesn't work*?"

"Well, not exactly," the reedy voice on the other end of the line said. "Just...not working right now. Sir."

"Be specific." Deceptively ordinary words, but the witch began to stutter through a hurried explanation.

"Well, astronomy i-isn't an exact science. Even the b-best technology c-c-c-c..." The speaker swallowed. Blue could hear them trying to get control of themselves. Finally, displaying a little sense. "Can go wrong."

"Really. Now, explain to me carefully, without that ridiculous stammer, just *how* wrong."

"Y-y...I mean, of course. The hunter's moon isn't in three days time. It's tomorrow."

"So...information an almanac could tell you, and you got it wrong. I'm...vexed." He didn't look vexed. The pale, prideful face remained impassive, the eyes thoughtful. "Tomorrow."

"Yes, sir," the voice said timidly.

Blue sighed, staring out of his window at the sky. No moon that he could see, but he could sense it, moving silently and invisibly.**Yes, he had thought it was more powerful than usual, but assumed****that was simply the fact that it was the hunter's moon and he, as a hunter, was attuned to it. **

He had been wrong

Still, it was only his second mistake. He had one more to go before it was time to get concerned.

"And what do you propose to do about this, pray tell? Have you told anyone, for all the good that will do?" 

Silence.

His eyes narrowed into slender blades like tiny crescent moons. "I see." 

Those bottomless pupils spread outwards, swamping his eyes in obsidian silk as the air grew thick and heavy, and faint echoes hung, voices screaming. Death flared around him like the Northern lights...anyone who listened carefully would hear pleading and begging and sobbing...and in answer, receive only silence. 

Dragonfire leapt from him and at the other end of the phoneline, there was a terrible whining sound, like an animal caught in a trap. It grew and grew, bubbling into terrified shrieks, then cut off abruptly. Silence.

"You're fired," he said mildly, and hung up.

Outside, the air was simmering gently on his skin as he looked up into the cerulean sky. His voice was filled with ice-age cold, his pale face expressionless. "So it's here," he murmured.

The moon of the hunter was rising soon...but who was the prey?

****

Strange feelings were roaring around Jal's head, a heaviness that was thick and clammy as blood. 

She followed the girl dumbly.

The girl. How could none of the rest of them see her? One minute, Jal had been sunning herself on the green expanse of the campus, listening to Cern explain some nickname, and the next, the girl had appeared, sitting primly on a bench with her dark bloated eyes staring at Jal and her blue-tinged mouth half-agape. 

She was quite obviously dead.

Maybe that was why no one else saw her. And then the roaring feeling had started in Jal, first like the high uncanny yowl of a wolf transmuted from sound into vibration, then deepening and thickening into this odd light-headedness, the feeling that she somehow wasn't in control.

"I know what you are." The words had been full, slurred as if the girl couldn't speak properly. "Murderer."

~ Who are you? ~ Jal had said, trying to fight the strange feeling. Somewhere, she was aware that she had stood up and something, someone was saying words in her voice to the others.

"Follow me." Her drowned, pallid face remained blank while, body dripping silently, she walked away.

And drawn, Jal had followed her, that feeling taking over her. She wanted...something. Something this girl had once had. Something dark and rich and full of life, that would sate her snarling hunger.

It was here, in these people. She sought for the word in her dreamy state...it was...blood. Yes, that was it. Her eyes passed over each person and judged whether she would let them live or die, while the vacuum in her soul yawned, yearning to be filled with their heated being.For now, she left them. Her power was not quite ripe yet. To strike now would lead only to failure. But sweet soon, the hunter's moon.

Walking, walking, walking. They were deep in the woodland now of Ryars Valley, while the drowned girl drifted ahead, lank hair unmoving in what little breeze there was. And hungry, silent, Jal moved behind her. 

Parts of it, she knew, ran wild and untamed. There were places where even those people she had spoken to a minute ago...suddenly their names slipped from her mind like morning shadows...didn't tread, places filled with ancient creatures and death.

Looking round the clearing, she knew this was such a place.

As she thought that, some of the haze left her mind, and she felt more like herself. Jal shivered. What had *that* been? What was the hunter's moon? Judging people...the heat had to be getting to her.

But I was brought up in a desertland, she thought, and pushed that uncomfortable observation out of mind.

"Why have you brought me here?" she said aloud.

The dead girl was on the other side of the clearing. She couldn't be very old, Jal thought. Little more than a child, dressed in clothes even she knew as old-fashioned. 

"I wanted to," the thick babyish voice said. The girl stared at her, never blinking, then the small mouth turned down in a frown. "You are...different. You were *bad* a minute ago."

"That wasn't me," Jal protested, but surely, if it was in her mind, waiting there, it was her. Had she felt that rush of stinging blood-drenched power?"Who are you? What do you want?"

The child's face brightened slowly, filling with tinges of lost colour. "Come here and I'll tell you."

Jal hesitated. This child was a *vision*. Was it a good idea to listen to her? No, a voice whispered. Of course not. But she's the closest thing I have to an answer. And only a child. How can she hurt me?

I have to find out, she decided. This power...it is weak now, but what if it's strong soon? What if I...if I lost myself in it? What would I become? Worse, what would I *do*?

The child fixed her oddly luminous stare on Jal and began to whisper something in her slurring voice. Only those vast black eyes gave away any hint of vulnerability. 

"I can't hear you," Jal said gently,her fear almost drowned by pity for this tiny girl, dead so tragically.

"It's a secret," the child said in her high voice. "You have to whisper secrets."

There were weeds clinging to the girl's clothes, Jal noticed absently as she walked over to the child, slow as if she approached a trapped beast. She could just make out the beginnings of the words. 

"...going to...like me...going to...me..." It was like a mantra, soft and eerie. The words whispered into the hush of the place. Dead silent. That wasn't right. There should at least be the feathery fingers of the wind.

And then she could make out the child's words.

"I'm going to kill you, just like you killed me. I'm going to kill you, then you'll be like me..."

The floor gave way beneath her.

****

Dear god no, she was falling into darkness, into that endless abyss again... 

Her world jolted, and Jal opened her eyes.

Not the abyss. Just the weeping infinity of the ocean, and the bowl of the sky carven from heated pink sunset above her. The sun sank into the horizon while opposite, the moon was full and fat as a blind eye.

She stood, calf-deep in cool water that licked at her skin, salt crusted in a shimmering layer on her skin, saline in her mouth and filling her nostrils. Under her toes, sand was gritty and pliant. What on earth...?

"It's early yet." A pleasant voice, with something of innocence chiming in it. I was like that once, Jal recalled sadly. A child, before the night took me. "The hunter's moon only has power in darkness."

She spun, the water swirling around her feet. There was a boy there, with his dark, shoulder-length hair turned a deep unnatural orange in the dusk light. A vision, she thought, fear rising. Not another, not again... "What is it?"

He glanced up, and she saw his skin had a curious pale sheen, like the drowned girl's, and dark bruises in the shape of hands enclosed his throat. "The last of the old ways. You're as beautiful as I remember."

"I'm not," she demurred hastily. Something about him was unnerving her. She cast around for a weapon, but only sand, sea and sky stretched into the distance. Helpless. "Please, tell me what you mean."

He ignored her question and walked closer, the water swishing in white crestlets until he was close enough to touch her. Jal found she was frozen still, so afraid she felt nothing but gripping cold as he reached out. 

"You don't remember me, do you?" the boy breathed, his thumbs stroking her cheeks with infinite care. 

She stared into his large, tranquil eyes. They had an oddly dreamy, remote quality, as if he was staring into another world that held such beautiful things he could not drag himself away.

"I don't know you," she told him, trying to push away his hands. It was useless.

"I know you," he said and paused to brush his lips along hers, touchingly shy as his eyelashes fell to hide his dark, dark blue eyes that were like slices of the deepest night. It was like kissing death, so chill and lifeless that Jal wanted to jolt back, but her strange paralysis held. "I know you so well."

"What did I do?" Her mouth trembling with uncertainty she couldn't stop. "I killed you, didn't I?"

"You?" He kissed her again, strong beyond belief as Jal tried to wrench away without hurting him. She had enough angry spirits after her...she didn't know how to deal with a horny one. 

His wistful face gazed right through her. "Oh no, not you. Your face, your beautiful body, but not you." His hands trailed up into her hair, tugging gently and winding through the gilt strands like some astonished traveller, lost for words and purely lost. "I could drown in you."

His touch felt strange, alien and frozen. It was gentle as rain upon her hands, so, so gentle that she thought her heart might break. This boy was not like the others. Not angry, not wild or insane, but simply wandering uncertainly. Knowing only that he had to come to her, to tell her...

"The water was lovely that night," he said vaguely, fingers trailing down her neck. "So deep and dark, like drowning in ink. I remember how cold it was. It seemed to seep into my bones until I was a part of it..."

Images fell into her head with that terrible clarity. How it had felt smooth and sharp on her skin, how she had loved the pain of the cold and beckoned him, lying back in the water so her hair fanned out on it like golden feathers, gleaming and glittering in the moonlight. A siren, stretching out her hands and arching her back and calling to the innocent, hesitant boy who had been trapped by her smile. 

Yes, she had been that bloodthirsty creature then, laying her poison web, the one who cared for nothing but that she had judged him impure, and so he must die. Impure, because he was...he was...

"You didn't feel the cold at all," he said, wonder in his pure clear voice. "Lying there, glowing silver like a unicorn. You were singing, singing a song that stole into my heart and drew me closer to listen to you..."

And she had let the night air and the water carry the throaty rich sound of her voice, singing ancient lays of the night's darkest secret in a language that spoke of blood and caresses, of desire and death entwined in one blazing, lethal tumble. He had drawn close, eyes so tranquil and marvelling, the salt water winding down his body like crystals, thousands of brilliant crystals. 

"You took me in your arms and you said..." He laughed, a happy soft sound. 

And she heard the husky, silky sound of a strong voice that sounded like her, that was old as the night and filled with all its cunning...that was soaked in death. That had taken her over.

"Half-human, half-vampire, but all mine." And she remembered his skin, warm and shuddering and his touch, sweetly sure, the way that she had kissed him, dragged him under the water and held him there, her hands hard around his throat until the water seized him in its icy, voracious grip and took him for its own.

Because he was a halfbreed.

She had let him go, and stared dispassionately at his floating, shimmering body. The moon above had been bright, glutted on the secret of this night, and looking up at it, she had felt it pull her close, wrap her in its cloudy shroud until she had howled for the joy of it. Over and over, baying for the killing joy. Howling at...

The hunter's moon.

She shuddered. Another memory, another terrible, awful thing that seemingly she had done. And yet...the memory did not fit. There was no gap in the dreadful darkness she had drifted in for so long. 

"So many were killed," he said absently, his eyes caressing her face. Not a ripple in the deep pools of his eyes, only serenity. "But of all of them, I was the only one who loved you." He smiled and kissed her throat. It was almost reverent. "The others wanted you. They desired you. But I...I loved you. You threw us all into darkness, but alone of them, I did not care because I had one memory, one instant of true bliss."

"What am I?" she begged, staring into the compassionate face.

"Not you," he told her. "You are looking at this the wrong way. They blame you because they look at your face. I do not blame you because I look at your heart. You did not kill me. What was planted in you did."

"What was...?"

"There is one who will help you," he murmured. "I feel them now, when I draw close to you from the abyss. Burning bright, like you do. In a way, they are part of you. A forgotten part. Discover them and you will discover the answer. Burn brightest, Jallakri ap Ganra, and free us."

"I don't understand." She clung to him now, the only one who had given her answers. "Why must I burn?"

"You burn now," he said quietly, "because the pure part of you is awake. It was almost swallowed by the darkness – the hunter's moon will rise soon, Jallakri, and then you will be out of time. You must burn brightest, Jallakri, you must banish the darkness and we will be free."

"Does it hurt you?" she blurted. Halted, unsure, then looked into that clear face. A face she had never known, yet a comforting one. "Being there...in the abyss." She shivered. "I found it so terrible...so awful."

"It was not so bad." He ducked his head. "I understand why I am there."

"Why?"

"The abyss is not a punishment. It is a place of suspension, between life and death. You killed us unjustly; and so there we wait, unable to live and unwilling to die. Until the injustice is gone. Then...we will be satisfied." He kissed her again, then drew back. Those dreamy, gentle eyes smiled. "You were there, too, once. You died, yet still had a way back...I heard you screaming in the lonely chasm. I do not know why you woke. But there is a reason...something calling your soul back to the waking world. It calls you now."

As he said it, she felt something, an almost magnetic force tugging at her. "And the dark calls me." He looked straight at her and there was nothing dreamy in his eyes. "I can bear the dark because I understand what I am. Know what you are. Go back to the waking world. You belong with the living, not here. Find the one who can help you...they are part of you, and you will know them."

"Wait!" she called after him, desperate. He turned briefly. "Will I remember?"

"Perhaps. If you want to. Nature is hard to fight...harder to defeat."

He walked into the deeps, despite her calls, her pleas, until the inky ocean swallowed him. And slowly, darkness drew down about her, however Jal fought and struggled. It took her over, slow and sweet and pushed her back out into the waking world...

To see only a nightmare staring down at her.

****

Cern shook his head a little, wishing his headache would go away. It had begun just minutes ago, with startling intensity, and he had the bizarre sensation for a moment or two that he was falling. But that was stupid; he was sitting down.

"All right, I have one," Cougar Redfern was saying with a touch of his former glee. "What do you do if a werewolf throws a pin at you?"

The Circle swapped vaguely confused looks, or at least the four of them there did. Tali had flitted off to hassle someone about something. She was that kind of person. Finally, Lisa shrugged. "No idea. What do you do when a wolf throws a pin at you?"

Cougar flashed her one of his reckless grins. "Run, he's got the grenade in his mouth."

"That's lame," the made vampire complained. But still, Lisa had to admit Cougar's exceptionally lame jokes were making her feel better. "But it's nice to see you smile."

The black-haired lamia lost his smile instantly."I feel a Oprah moment coming on."

She pulled a face. "No chance. Your problem, you sort it out. You don't need my help." 

Cougar shrugged. "Look, I've apologised to Ria. If she's going to sit there and insist I tell her every goddamn secret I have, she's mistaken. I need some privacy. I can't live my life in someone else. I'm not like that—" He stopped, the angry flush fading from the devastatingly sharp cheekbones. "Sorry. I've just...had enough, you know?" And Lisa thought from the dangerous curve of his mouth that he was being honest. Cougar had been pushed too far. "Anyway, what about you, Lise? Is there anyone special in your life?"

"Yes, me," she said dryly.

Cougar pulled a face. How he still managed to pull off devastatingly attractive at the same time, she would never know. "No, I mean someone you treasure and want to keep safe from harm."

"Hmmm…" She put a finger under her chin, thinking. "Still me, I'm afraid."

"Infuriating female," he muttered. 

"Wasn't that redundant?" Cern put in. He looked pale, she thought, as if he was in pain. "No, please don't hit me," he added hastily as Lisa eyed him with mock-menace. She wouldn't, of course. His wry smile warmed her heart a little.

She poked Cougar in the shoulder, changing the subject. "Anyway, what do you think of the Pack's latest?"

"The Pack's latest?" Cougar blinked and interested, Cern pushed his head awake and sat up to listen. "Hadn't noticed. Too busy watching Cern's better half cause trouble. Where?"

"About ten metres away," Lisa said dryly, wondering how men were so *blind* sometimes. "That girl giving you daggers. Actually, she's been watching us for a while."

All three of the guys looked over, she noticed with amusement, to the stocky female whose grey eyes were spitting loathing. She had short hair that fell to her earlobes, apart from a fringe that was left long and swept to cover one eye. And it was an unusual colour too; Lisa had never seen anyone with truly copper hair, every bit as shiny and glittering as the metal.

"Guess she didn't like the 'wolf joke," chuckled Jepar. "What are the chances of you apologising?"

"Why did the wolf stare at the orange juice?" Cougar said promptly, his gold eyes glittering. He never took well to people glaring at him. The girl got up and began to walk over, slowly, purposefully.

"I have no idea," Cern said, and Lisa noticed he was surreptitiously glancing around to see if there were any weapons around. Jepar had sat up, intrigued, but looking completely unthreatened. After all, as a cheetah, he could handle any trouble that came his way, and it was surprising how much did.

"It said 'concentrate'," the lamia said brightly and looked up at the sturdy girl with his usual insolent stare. "Can I help? Or hinder, either's fine with me."

"You can stop cracking insulting jokes," the girl said. Her voice was surprisingly clear and chiming, at odds with her severe black clothes and masses of eyeliner. 

"It's hard not to when you're dressed like that," Cougar murmured, his eyes falling to the spiked collar around her neck. "I'm Cougar Redfern, by the way. And apart from being very attractive, you are?"

"Pissed off."

Lisa fought to hide her grin. No one ever talked to Cougar like that, except for the Circle, and it was fun to watch him blink, startled. "Nice name. Sounds like your parents had the same sense of humour as mine."

"Speaking of humour," the copper-haired girl said, flicking her head so her long fringe showed both sullen eyes for a moment. "Here's one for you. Know what the problem with vampires is?"

"How would you like the list, alphabetically or chronologically?" Jepar said dryly. The girl stole a quick glance at him, apparently deciding she liked him about as much as Cougar. Cern, her eyes rested on briefly and filled with a glittering heat. Lisa wondered if there was *any* occasion on which homicide was acceptable. Don't be so stupid, she told herself. He's not yours.

The girl stared down imperiously at Cougar. "They suck."

The vampire only laughed. Lisa was impressed; last time someone insulted Cougar, it had all ended in tears. Someone else's, naturally. "Yeah. At least we don't bite."

"Isn't that true!" a new, husky voice said. It was unexpectedly grim, and Cern knew it. Would he never be free of Donna Ares? 

The Pack leader surveyed them all. "I don't know why you're flirting with vampires, Felicity Serafine," she said icily. "Especially after your last encounter with them."

The copper-haired girl looked suddenly uncertain. "You told me to find them," she muttered.

Ignoring her minion, Donna turned her hard green stare on Cern. "That girl you rescued is back in the woods. She fell into our trap." The berry lips pursed. "She's under your protection, remember? So she's your responsibility." Glee flickering in her sly eyes; yes, she saw she had power over him now, but she didn't know the whole story. And Cern wasn't about to tell her. "We're going to try her. The Pack way." 

She laughed delightedly, husky voice rippling, and Felicity smiled too, hard and cold as the spikes on her collar. "We thought you might want to witness."

The Pack way. Dear gods.

Trial by combat.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? Love to hear 'em!


	13. Part Thirteen

Nightfire Part Thirteen

Thank you so much to you angels who reviewed last time round – I loved hearing what you thought! Thanks you to: Dead Flower (Flick is just a one time character for this story, but she will appear in others), Me (I hear and humbly obey!), Myst (I'm a cliffhanger addict. Sad but true. Okay, I'll take a look at that chapter and see how I can revise it.) and Persephone (Thanks :-) That was a pretty busy chapter! You'll see about Toya!)

I would love to hear what you think – all your thoughts, criticisms, opinions would be welcomed with open arms, heart and mind. Please tell me!

Hugs n' honey,

Ki

Nightfire Part Thirteen

Ria Lutinne slipped across the careless roads of Ryars Valley. She walked a lot lately. She walked on the roads and through the woods and around the bewitching blue-grey deep of the lake. Often she thought how easy it would be to walk into those sweetly icy deeps and wait for the water to take her. 

Today, the ghost roads were calling her.

They weren't even real roads, just half-trodden ways of wolves, arrowing into the reckless wild. She loved it, and she feared it. Loved it for its untameable splendour, feared it for the dark secrets lying in the depths.

"These are dangerous parts," a rough voice said mildly. "Ain't a good idea to be walkin' 'em, not with the hunter's moon this near."

She turned, swift and startled as a fawn, her tumble of golden-red hair swinging in her eyes. She pushed it back, blinking. Oh. It was just Iry. Ria relaxed, feeling the fear ebb away gently. "I don't mind."

The werewolf snorted. "Well, I get the feelin' Redfern'll mind if I let ye go an' get ripped to pieces."

Ria shrugged. But his words evoked a startlingly vivid memory...standing in the first frosts of last winter, with Cougar's arms around her, both of them just sitting and watching while the Circle was in the middle of a furious snowfight. Lisa had just tripped Jepar up and telekinetically dropped a small avalanche on him, and Cern had been laughing breathlessly while Thom rugby-tackled a surprised Ruby...and in the middle of it all, her dark soulmate, silent and smiling at her. With his head against hers, and his eyes aglow and the softness of their breath mingling. 

For the first time then, Ria had welcomed winter.

"It's not your business," she said, in the hopeless heat of summer. Go away, leave me alone. Let me hurt in peace...let me have that at least. "And he'd get over it."

Iry rolled his eyes. "Ya-huh. You keep thinkin' that, darlin', an' maybe you'll believe it one day, probably the day the devil rents out some skis and offers to host the Winter Olympics."

"Did I ask for your advice?" It should have come out harsh. But she sounded merely fragile, merely fading. How did I lose him? she thought, her turquoise eyes wistful. I am dying like the flowers, and soon there will be nothing of me but withered scraps.

"No. You never ask, you an' them friends of yours who all think you're so smart." He kept pace with her easily, that long rangy body seeming so natural against the ruthless wild. He lifted his head, and sniffed the air, his lips briefly skinning back as if to taste it. "Trouble's comin'."

"Let it." Ria moved deeper into the shadows, feel the graze of nettles on her palm and not minding the pain. "It always gets you sooner or later."

"Not like this." Something in his voice stopped her. Iry Lupine had the face of a thirty-year old, rugged and fierce, and he was notoriously tetchy and unpredictable. But never serious. Yet those eyes with their flecks of grey like hurled ash stared at her solemnly. "I felt it before. An' it's here again, only stronger."

"What?" she said, intrigued despite herself.

His next question was sharp and unexpected. "What do you know about the hunter's moon?"

"It's...the first moon after harvest," Ria replied, startled. What kind of a question was that? Though he had mentioned it earlier... "Apart from that, not much."

The werewolf looked disgusted, sitting himself down on a sturdy tree root. "An' you a witch. Shame on you." He looked up, to where the sun just crept through the thick lattice of trees. Ria waited patiently. "Hunter's moon is special for wolves an' vampires. Strong. It amplifies our powers...telepathy goes further. Talked to a wolf down under last year. Magic works better under it too. They say it's when all the dragons turn in their sleep an' give us a little taste of their power."

"And that's going to bring trouble?" she asked, unable to keep the bemusement from her voice. It didn't sound like much...but still, something deep inside her stirred and whispered like dry leaves rustling.

He bared his teeth, briefly a beast and not a man. "Not alone. But there's other things. Used to be something sleepin' under this valley, some creature. Felt it in my dreams sometimes. Now, happens you might remember that there was a big disturbance 'while back, when your Tali fought another dragon."

She nodded. The battle had been silent in this world, phenomenal through her psychic senses, and she possessed only a little. She could feel the unease gathering in her stomach. Please...let it be nothing. 

"All that power...it had to go somewhere, or kill both them dragons. An' it woke somethin' else." He saw the query half-framed on her lips and shook his head decisively. "I don't know what. But that's not all. There's some boy strollin' around. Blue-haired."

Blue. Yes. Jal had mentioned him, and Ria had the vague feeling Cougar loathed him...but he had never shown her why. No, she reflected sadly, he guarded his secrets carefully. "I know him."

"He's got power, that one," Iry said grimly. "An' he's rotten somehow. Blackhearted to the core. An' the worst thing is, I don't even think he's crazy. Seemed sane enough last time he came here. Sane as you or I, an' smarter than us put together...not to mention minus a conscience an' a soul. Don't seem to care much. An'...you really ain't goin' to like this."

He had been here before? Maybe that had something to do with why Cougar hated him so... "What?"

"I smelled blood on the air. Not just any blood either. It's that witch friend of yours, Chatoya." Ria felt her breath catch. Toya had never been anything but kindness to her, who on earth would hurt her? "Lot of blood too. 'S why I caught you up, figured you could help better than me, bein' witchblooded an' all."

"Where?" she said tersely, her own pain banished. How horribly ironic, that only when others were hurt did she become whole again for a while. "Why didn't you say sooner?"

"Told you now, didn't I?" he demanded brusquely, and she realised it probably just hadn't occurred to him. The wild wolves didn't think much like people; their heads were filled with wolf-thoughts of hunting and stalking through their beautiful land, of their family and their children and their instincts, not with common sense. "Follow me."

She ran after him, through the ghost roads, praying there would be no more spirits to add to their number.

****

Chatoya Irkil had a strange dream.

There were voices in it, disjointed floating voices that pierced the veil of darkness around her and dragged her up towards waking, up through starry drifts that spun serenely, away from the sweet peace circling her.

"...aren't you following Jallakri? Are all my employees doomed to be braindead, in a very literal sense?"

The darkness in that voice struck a chord in her. She knew it. It sent a feeling through her sluggish, drained body like a bee walking over her palm. Fear, awe, anticipation. Did you send me here? she thought dumbly.

"She fell into the Pack's snare," a desperate voice said. Chatoya didn't know it. It might have been Ria, with all the fright in it, but the accent was wrong. "They're the local wolves...they don't like trespassers."

"I take it they don't forgive their trespassers, then," the silky, night-filled voice said and then sighed. "Puns just go straight over your oversized head, don't they? So...the wolves have her. Hmmm...they're rather likely to kill her. Ms Ares especially...I need to find a good vantage point." 

There was a choked gasp. Chatoya thought she might have felt disgust, but she felt simply devoid. As if this was what she would have expected all along. "You want to *watch*?"

"Do I need to explain myself to *you*?" A faint note of menace slunk and twined around each word, but somehow, Chatoya knew why he wanted to see. To make sure Cern's soulmate was dead. Are you insane? Chatoya thought. Ruby, can't you see what you're getting yourself into? 

"No. I'm sorry." Distant sounds, like footsteps. 

"No you're not," the drawling voice said. "You're afraid. But let's not get caught up in minor details."

The sounds were becoming slowly clearer. Yes, Chatoya thought, she needed to know what was going on...Cern's soulmate? In the Pack-snare? And Ruby in league with Blue? Surely this wasn't reality...but if it was... She tried to force herself into reality, that place she that seemed to far away.

"What do I do?" Ruby pleaded. "I didn't mean to mess up..." Her voice oddly thin and forlorn. "Please..."

"I can hear your thoughts, you know," Blue remarked casually. Chatoya felt the final haze recede and knew that she lay dying. Dying. How odd. She was dying, and the strangest thing was, it didn't even matter. Not compared to this. "I don't need you any longer, Ms Luthman. Jallakri ap Ganra has just made my work much easier."

A little gasp from Ruby, like a dying man's last breath.

"You want your reward, of course," the boy mused slowly. Chatoya lay in darkness, unable even to open her eyes, and felt the cunning radiating from him like light. Somehow, she understood, in this half-living state, she could see things she wouldn't normally. Blue's voice was softly disdainful as the raven's laugh. "Jepar Jubatus...gods only know why, though they do say those whom the gods wish to destroy, they first make mad. In which case, your end may be singularly nasty. Catch."

A thud. "What is it? It looks like..." Doubt, but more terror. "A ring."

"Bravo. Tap it three times, say the name of the one you want, and they'll be yours." Such boredom in his voice, but Chatoya, knew that he was very interested to see what the consequences would be. Because for him, it would be...entertaining. Love. Desire. What were they but ways to manipulate people?

"I think I'll forgo the 'be careful what you wish for speech' and skip straight to 'you have only one wish'. I can however, assure you that your prince will not turn into a frog." A low, amused laugh. "Do have fun."

"That's it?" Disbelief...and a kind of sceptical joy. It's a charm, Chatoya decided. For...making someone fall in love with you, or at least, think they are. But who? Who would Ruby wan—oh no. She wouldn't be so stupid. Surely she wouldn't. She...would. Goddess, I've seen how much she wants Jepar. She'd run to the ends of the earth...she'd sell her soul...she'd watch someone else's soulmate *die*. "I can go?"

"Yes." ~ For now, ~ Chatoya heard him say in a soft mental whisper. 

~ Run! ~ she screamed silently at Ruby. ~ Throw away whatever he's given you, it's tainted, it's corrupted, it's *filthy*, can't you *see* that? ~ But Ruby was moving away with light, joyful steps.

Then something happened that shocked her.

~ Are you all right there, Chatoya Irkil? ~ That sinful voice curled around her. ~ You're amazingly stubborn...and so quiet there, I almost didn't notice you. Go on...warn her. She won't hear you. She only hears what she wants to. ~

~ Why? ~ she flung at him. ~ Why are you giving her what she wants? ~

~ You know, ~ he murmured. She blinked, and she was seeing the world through his eyes. Staring at her own body, hidden in foliage, laying where she had fallen, black hair tangled, blood dark around her. Ruby wouldn't have noticed...but Blue had. 

Yes. She knew. He liked to play.

~ You know rather too much now, ~ he said mildly. ~ The problem is...I still can't kill you. If you die, I lose my extremely tenuous link to all those handy dragon powers. It's your witchpowers that keep them in me, you know. Haven't you wondered why you've never been quite so powerful as before? Not to mention it might well kill me as well. ~

Control, she had assumed. That was why she had never been able to cast spells quite so easily as before. She wouldn't let herself unleash her powers. But...he was telling the truth.

~ So what do I do with you? ~ He was stalking round in a slow circle. She saw through his eyes, heard through his ears. ~ Your friends are coming to help you. And if they heal you...well, in true heroic style, you'll try to thwart my evil intents and so on and so forth. But...you're quite helpless now, aren't you? ~

She didn't understand what she meant until she felt his presence inside her mind, like a cool dark wind. For a moment, a shocking moment, she felt everything he felt—

~ Ah. ~ He was...suddenly enlightenment dawned. He wanted her witch powers. To lay a...sleeping spell. And a forgetting spell...no, she wouldn't let him! Chatoya fought him, but it was useless as trying to trap smoke. 

But what if she played him at his own game?

Swift as lightning, she reached deep into his mind, pushing past his thoughts, his knowledge heedlessly to the dragonfire, dark and terrible. And before he was even aware, she put one simple trigger in her mind, one trigger that would bring back everything. It was easy; the trigger was important in his thoughts—

~ You little minx! ~ his laughing mocking voice said, and power slammed her with a hammerstrike impact. But as she was dragged into icy oblivion, but before her mind winked out into nothingness, Chatoya thought silently, smugly...

When I see the hunter's moon, I will remember.

****

It was a snarling face above her, a face with empty eyes and glistening teeth. Jal gasped and shrank back, then cried out as pain lanced through her side. She looked down, and saw blood. So much blood, glowing that deep living red...

She stared at it, felt herself falling into the gleams on it, into the deep pulse and she was drowning in rivers, in lakes, in oceans of other's lives, the only light the ethereal glow of the hunter's moon above her...

Someone hit her.

Jal was thrown from the vision, all her knowledge slipping away like slippery fish. What was it? she thought desperately. I needed to know, it was *important* somehow...

She was thrown to the floor. They had dragged her from the pit, with her side aching and bloody. Her chin cracked on the ground, and there was dirt on her face and dank in her mouth.

"Trespasser!" snarled a high voice. "You are not Pack!"

It was as if she could hear Cougar Redfern in her head again, with his sardonic eyes glowing and the start of that tilted, wicked smile, saying, well *duh*. 

"Leave me alone," Jal said, trying to get up. She almost screamed as a foot slammed down onto the small of her back and she hit the ground helplessly. What would they do to her?

There were sounds all around, nasty snuffling sounds. "You are on our land."

"I didn't mean to be," she said, keeping her voice steady. They are the same as me, she thought stubbornly. I don't have to be afraid. They're kin. Surely they won't hurt me...and then she thought of the missing finger on her hand, and the icy-cold stare of the wolf who had bitten her, and knew that she was nothing to them.

"We punish trespassers," another voice said, and growled. "You look tasty."

"Leave me alone!" Jal said, and rolled sideways, out from the weight of whoever had a foot on her back. She leapt to her feet before they could throw her down again. "It was an *accident*."

Claws sliced through the air and agony streaked across her face. She did scream then, but with anger, with sheer fury that they *dared* to do this to her...she struck out blindly and felt her fist connect.

"Bitch!" yelped a voice, and she stood still long enough to see a circle of slinky, strong bodies ringing her, to see glitteringly green eyes that leapt with unholy light and the stretched, inhuman faces. 

"Leave me alone," she said firmly, though her heart trembled. "Or I'll hurt you."

"Like you could," someone laughed. It was a boy, with a sullen mouth and a shaved head. She could see shiny scars on his arms, running over tattoos. "We're gonna *gut* you, lone wolf."

"I'm not alone!" she said angrily. She had friends. She had something that was maybe more than friendship, she was *no longer* alone. She would *never* be alone again. Never falling into the abyss. "And if you don't let me go, you're going to regret it."

A girl to his left laughed, beginning to circle like all of them were. "Yeah? Think you can beat a whole Pack?" Her hand, heavy with thick silver rings, stretched out and slowly clenched. "We're going to crush you. You're on Pack land...and we rule here. No one dares come here. Your friends don't want you – where are they now?"

"No one *wants* to come here," Jal snapped, her anger slowly building. But what if...the girl was right, and they didn't want her? "You're here because no one wants *you* anywhere else."

The girl's metalled hand lashed out to slap her—

Jal caught it and *threw* the girl over her shoulder. She weighed nothing, *nothing* and it was so, so easy...

But as the rest of the Pack attacked, she knew they had been right. No one wanted her...

But if she hurt them, her pain went away. It disappeared...and Jal got angry.

****

When the three of them; Cern, Cougar and Jepar, skidded into the Pack clearing with Donna Ares and the Pack minion close on their heels, none of them were expecting the sight that met their eyes.

Jal was causing chaos.

There was a half-healed wound in her side, where she must have landed on one of the stakes the Pack planted in their pit, and mud across her side from the dank earth inside, but her eyes blazed with pure crystalline fury, and her hands and feet moved in golden blurs as she viciously hit and kicked anything nearby.

"What idiot let her out?" roared Donna, nipping past the trio of Circle Strange in wolf shape to throw herself at Jal. Felicity followed, melting into a snarling wolf with a copper-tinged coat.

Her mouth snarling, her eyes wild, Jal turned to see the Pack leader streaking towards her...her pupils dropped away like bottomless wells...Donna leapt.

Jal's foot moved up and lashed into the wolf's head with blinding speed. Donna landed hard and shifted back, blood trickling from her jaw.

Then Jal saw Felicity.

"You bit me!" she shouted furiously, waving her hand with the finger missing. "You bit me, you mangy..." Her language trailed off into words which could only have come from the mind of Cougar Redfern.

"Would you mind not corrupting my soulmate?" hissed Cern, wondering where the safest place to hide would be. "I know she didn't learn that from *me*."

"Uh-oh..." Jepar muttered, his emerald eyes fixed on the silver wolf facing Jal.

"Uh-oh? As in she has odd socks on, or as in damn, that was the nuclear missile launcher?"

Jepar glanced at Cern. He could read the look in the shapeshifter's eyes, the one that said is now *really* the time for humour? "Uh-oh as in that wolf's going to poun—"

Felicity Serafine sprang.

Uh-oh.

Cern had the sense to hit the floor as the wolf flew – *flew* – back over his head with a yowling shriek and, unfortunately for her, hit Cougar Redfern.

Cougar was not known for his love of wolves. He was not known for his understanding and compassion. He was not known for liking being hit in the face by heavy objects moving at high speed.

He was, however, known for having a very short fuse.

Twenty very hectic seconds later, Cern got up off the ground and looked at a faintly moaning Felicity. The rest of the Pack was scattered around, most of them bruised from Jal's rage, some of them nursing new wounds from Cougar's brief and projectile tantrum. Throwing logs did tend to cause damage.

Jepar landed lightly, jumping down from the tree he had been perching in. "Talk about seeing Redfern," he drawled mildly. 

Cern turned and looked at his soulmate with new eyes. Suddenly, she didn't seem as sweet and shy as he had thought. "Are you okay?"

He didn't know what he was expecting her to say. With that fierce hunting light in her, with her golden hair mussed around her face and her snarling mouth, he was expecting a joke, or a wry comment, or a bright smile.

He wasn't expecting her to look at him with a fresh pain in her eyes, as though something inside her had snapped suddenly. "I'm alone," she whispered, her face pale with blood scarlet against her skin. Her legs seemed to give suddenly and she fell hard. Cern had moved before he even knew, kneeling down by her fallen form.

She looked up at him again, and he thought he had never seen anyone so lost. 

"I'm alone."

It was then that the scream severed the air.

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I'd love to hear!


	14. Part Fourteen

Nightfire Part Fourteen

Thank you so so much to everyone who commented! Thank you to: Persephone, Myst, Me and Kat J Guys, you're absolutely fabulous.

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Nightfire Part Fourteen

"Luna, they made a mess of her," Iry Lupine drawled, his eyes bright with morbid curiosity.

Ria glanced at him. "State the obvious, why don't you?"

For the first time in months, she felt like herself. Here, with this pale-faced friend who needed her aid more than anyone ever had, who said not a word and yet taught Ria a firm, and shocking lesson. That the span between life and death was short. Too short.

But she was worried. Very worried. Toya had lost too much blood...already she was unconscious, and if she didn't get healed fast, she would slip into the deepest, darkness sleep of all with scarcely the catch of a breath. 

I will *not* let that happen, Ria thought. 

She remembered another time when she had been helpless; when she had first come here, dragged along by her sister Bliss, who had been an extremely professional assassin, mostly because no one suspected that a voluptuous witch girl and her shy, frightened sister could be out to kill anyone. 

Bliss had tried to kill Jepar, and most of Circle Strange...and Ria had befriended them. It was how she had met Cougar, how she had discovered this incredible link that brought such wild joy and such stunning pain. It was the first time she had stood up to Bliss, to anyone...it hadn't worked. 

Not on her own. Alone, she had been nothing. But...with someone else, that dark-haired someone with spitting fiery eyes, there had been strength to survive.

She needed help. And there was only one person she could reach when she was this far from town.

Her thoughts winged out, clean and arcing as a javelin. ~ Cougar? ~

A flare of hope, mandarin-tangy. ~ Ria? ~She felt his mind then, the smouldering orange cinder that brimmed with fire and emotion, but now it seemed to burn out as he remembered, and his tones became guarded, a trifle sullen. ~ What do you want? ~

~ Help, ~ she said bluntly. 

A snort. ~ Why the hell should I help you? Me, with all my secrets and my pride? ~ 

Had she really said such hurtful, terrible things? Her turquoise eyes narrowed. Yes. To hide all the hurt and terror in her own heart. ~ I need you, ~ she said very softly. ~ Please, Toya's been hurt. She needs blood. ~

~ She's hurt? ~ Alarm leaping. ~ Where are you...wait, show me. It'll be faster. ~

She knew what he meant; open her mind, let him simply take the knowledge. Ria stared into space for a moment, her face pensive. Iry, watching her, thought she might have been an elf stepped from a fairy tale with that delicate bone-structure and her tumble of strawberry-blond hair, fine as cornsilk.

No. This was Toya's life. Who gave a damn about prudence...Ria wouldn't play about.

~ All right. ~ She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and let down the spiky shields that had guarded her mind so long. It felt strange, vulnerable.

There was a pause, like the deadly silence before both sides charged in a battle, and then she felt his mind-touch, a tense, dark shadow, like fire locked under jet. The pull of the link was almost overwhelming, but both ignored it...yet still, flashes from his mind glittered in her head like pieces of a glass jigsaw.

Herself, the way he had first seen her, a thin pale thing with fear in her eyes and a walk that was almost a half-run. A shadow of her sister, a shadow even of herself.

Flash. Another girl with the same raw fear in her eyes, curled on the ground...Jal. 

~ What's happened? ~ she demanded. The girl she had spoken to had seemed so strong, if unsure. ~ Why's Jal crying? ~

~ PMT? ~ suggested Cougar, a sardonic edge to his voice. ~ Pre-moon tension? I don't know, how the hell should I? ~

Her temper leapt immediately. Gods, how could she miss him so much when he wasn't there and *loathe* him so much when he was? ~ Can't you give a straight answer? ~

~ You walked out because I couldn't, remember? ~ he shot back viciously.

This is *insane*, Ria thought. Toya's hurt and we're *arguing*. She rubbed her forehead. ~ No...oh, look, do you know where we are? ~

The anger drained away, leaving that dull-black ashen sense again. ~ Yeah. I'll be there in a few minutes. ~

****

Zara Carmillen unrolled another scroll carefully, trying not to break the brittle parchment. Two days, two dusty, dull days and they had found nothing.

"I can't believe you meant an actual vault," she said sourly into the focused silence. She threw her head forward, hands raking through her bouncy raven hair to try and shift some of the grey dust lodged there. 

Her fiancé looked up from where he was sitting against a wall. "What did you think I meant?" he inquired smoothly, the slight accent in his words – she wouldn't have noticed it if she hadn't been so closely bound to him – sounding on the consonants. 

Zara looked around, blinking her eyes irritably. The place was a simple room, made from dark grey stone and not much bigger than a tennis court. The problem was that there were shelves and shelves of books, boxes, scraps of paper, paintings coiled into tight rolls...it was a nightmare.

"You could at least have tidied it," she said wearily. She had to stand on boxes and crates to reach some of the ledges. At a petite just-over five feet, she still couldn't get down some of the scrolls on the highest shelves. It made finding anything relating to Jal damn near impossible. "You've been alive six thousand years. You can't tell me you never had time to pick up a duster."

"I don't dust."

She eyed his face. He could have been a model for Calvin Klein, with those endlessly dark eyes, that if you cared to look closely, seemed to hold the miniature perfection of stars and galaxies whirling in their depths, and the perfect, sensual mouth. Only models didn't tend to have streaks of soot running down the side of their face.

"I can see that," she told him fondly, and reached up to get another box, hands scrabbling to get a grip. "Why don't you let anyone else in here?"

He glanced up, his hair catching red highlights from the fluorescent lighting. "These organisations have a strong belief in secrecy." Dark put the scroll he was scanning onto the pile beside him and hauled down the box she was so futilely trying for, handing it to her. "Mienne, if they knew *I* knew about them, they'd kill me. They'd kill anyone they thought knew. Those of us who do...well, we pretend that we've never heard of them. Even Circle Daybreak holds their peace about them. It's easy for me to keep this quiet...it'd be a lot harder for some of my researchers."

Zara snorted. "Like they could kill you."

But she was startled to see his face solemn, a tiny fractional shake of his head. "If they wanted to, they could. They're more dangerous than I am by far."

"But..." she began. The words died on her lips as he telepathically showed her some of what he knew. Fragments of whispered stories, bits and pieces he had put together. One Nightfire agent he had eavesdropped on...and nearly died for that.

"I'd only kill someone," he said softly. "But mienne, they'd take your soul and leave the rest of you to mourn its loss forever."

She stared at him. She had thought Darkstar was the most dangerous person she would ever meet; a Night Lord, head of Nightpeople who worked for profit and to keep the secret of the Nightworld safe, he had nearly killed her because he thought she had information. Things had changed...he had changed her into a vampire, but still, she knew that the side of him she saw was not what the world saw.

But it seemed there was something even he feared. And that terrified her.

"Then we'd best find out what Jallakri has to do with them," she said grimly.

Then she realised his expression had changed. Recognition, as he stared at the box she was holding. Not a crate, she realised, but a box, carven from some dark wood and covered in ornate carvings. He arms were at full stretch just to grip the corners tightly – only her vampiric strength kept it from falling. 

"That's it," he said almost reverently. "It's in there...I bought on the black market a long time ago, when I was trying to find out about Nightfire."

She set it down. It had no opening she could see, no lock, nothing but those carvings that seemed to be men and women screaming, and runes etched into the varnished surface.

Dark leaned forward, tapped the carvings in several places. There was a faint click, and then the top sprung open.

And inside, vivid as the day it was created, lay a painting, a painting of a fierce girl with crystal-pale green eyes and golden hair marred only by a striking scarlet streak. A girl with her mouth ringed in blood, and her head tilted regally.

Jallakri ap Ganra.

****

"*How dare you*?" Donna Ares screamed. The werewolf leader's artful face was flushed, her hands hooked as if she wanted to tear at Jal's eyes.

~ Jal okay? ~ the warm voice of Jepar murmured. Cern glanced over at his shapeshifter friend and shook his head grimly – Cougar, he noticed, had disappeared. The Redfern was like the cat who walked alone; he suffered no human bindings. 

Gods, what had they done to Jal?

She was curled into a tight little knot beside him, rocking slightly – he suspected to stop herself from crying or showing any sign of weakness. But the fragility was all there in the tortured reaches of her eyes, and his heart went out to her. The tears still fell, the swift and silent tears of those who knew that to cry out was to invite only deeper pain.

~ Can you deal with Donna? ~ he asked the cheetah 'shifter, The exchange took a scant instant, while he debated how – and if – he could help Jal. Tentatively, he reached out.

She gasped and flinched back, her face frighteningly blank.

~ It's me, ~ he whispered. ~ Jal, you're hurt. ~

She froze and watched him, still weeping without emotion or sound. It worried him; no effort to stop the tears, as though some part of her had already admitted defeat. He traced the air above one of the cuts on her arms, and she didn't flinch away – though he could tell she had to force herself not to – but simply gazed at him.

~ It was them. ~ The bleak whisper was like the scrape of knives on his senses. So raw...didn't the Pack have any sense of honour? ~ They...pulled me out of the pit. They said I was trespassing.Then they... ~ Her face was floury with shock. Disbelief rang in her voice. ~ They tortured me. ~

Cern hid his anger – it wasn't what she needed right now. ~ You couldn't have known...I'm sorry. I should have warned you. ~

~ I was scared. ~ She bit her lip. He knew the gesture well, trying to hold back pain that threatened to overwhelm you in its despairing intensity. ~ I was alone. ~

~ You weren't, ~ he said softly. ~ You're never alone now, Jal, not truly. ~

For the first time, the frosted-green eyes lifted to his, hesitant. ~ I don't understand. ~

~ I'm here, ~ he said simply, letting the truth ring his voice and his face. ~ All you have to do is call...distance isn't anything to the soul. ~ She had to understand she *could* trust him. And perhaps for the first time, Cern was surprised to find he could give her that small part of himself without any sense of fear or loss. ~ I'm only a thought away. ~

Silence, as she searched his face with a concentration that made him uneasy. Her stare was bladed as a hawk's, seeming to look into the depths of who he was and drag out all the uncomfortable truths he had been hiding in his life.

Then she moved in a flurry of grace, all gold and dirt, and hugged him tightly, burying her head into his shoulder. Her body was a warm mass, and her hands tangled in his hair...and he didn't mind. There was something there, he thought, which hadn't been there before. And he thought perhaps he knew what it was.

Trust. Truly that simple.

~ It's okay, ~ he told her, smiling though she couldn't see it. Because...she made him happy. To see that he could have that effect on someone, it was a feeling beyond description. The drop on the biggest rollercoaster in the world, the first breath of summer. ~ It's okay now. ~

~ I know it is, ~ she answered. Her mind was a bright tangle of threads, every colour of the rainbow. Jal lifted her head to look at him, her face perplexed. ~ It...really is, isn't it? ~ One blink, one inhalation. Her voice was slow, wondrous. ~ It's never been okay before. I think... ~ She paused, and then smiled, rare and delightful as a rainbow in winter.

~ I think I'm happy. ~

It was at that moment Jepar's slightly amused voice slanted into their heads. ~ Uh...guys...I know you're in the middle of a tender reconciliation and all...but I am up to my ass in werewolves. ~

He dragged his stare away and realised Jepar wasn't kidding. The blond shapeshifter was in the middle of the entire Pack, and just about holding his own, but not for much longer. Anyone would have been hard pushed to fight offtwenty enraged wolves, and Jepar was fast running out of manoeuvring space. A wolf had a fairly firm stranglehold on the boy's neck, and as far as Cern knew, Jepar wasn't too good at rising from the dead.

~ Couldn't have some help, could I? ~ 

****

"Hell," was Cougar's laconic comment as he strode in. His eyes avoided Ria, and she wasn't sure whether to be glad or annoyed. "What did that?"

"That blue-haired kid," Iry drawled. "That one that's your half-brother."

Cougar closed his eyes briefly and swore. 

"He's your what?" Ria said before she could stop herself, then shook her head. "No, I don't want to know. It can wait."

Iry glanced at her. ~ Do you always get an attitude when Redfern appears? ~

She didn't deign to answer, instead watching anxiously as with his usual unflappability, Cougar took a look at the gash on Chatoya's wrist, kneeling down. "You've not healed this?"

"I figured you might want to donate some blood," she answered, bridling at the implied criticism. 

The golden eyes were a brief lance to her. "Only asking." Her tall soulmate drew out a knife (he always seemed to carry one, through sheer paranoia more than anything else) and opened a long cut on Chatoya's arm, joining it to the original that Blue had made. Ria knew why; so more of the vampire blood would go in. It seemed to cling to human flesh once it was there, and to be absorbed into the bloodstream easily.

He opened a parallel gash in his wrist. Ria saw him wince slightly as he did, and despite her anger at him right now, it stung her a little too.

She didn't even know why she was so angry. He hadn't done anything, yet whenever she saw him, she just felt furious. And when he wasn't she felt miserable. I'm like some sort of addict, she thought. And I have got to get over this.

"How much blood did she lose?" he muttered a few minutes later. Ria saw him shiver briefly, and realised he had gone even paler than usual, as though his skin had been bleached. He's losing too much, a panicky voice thought. He may be a vampire, but even they need their blood.

"A lot." She moved like a ghost to hunker down by him, and when he shivered again, laid a hand on his shoulder. She felt every muscle tense. That hurt...but she deserved it, she supposed. Maybe it was time she took responsibility for what had gone wrong between them. "Are you okay?"

He stilled. "Fine." Terse voice. "Damn." His arm had healed, and he cut it again. This time, the flinch was more pronounced. He was weakening, she knew, and he was so damn stubborn he wouldn't give up until he was sure Chatoya would be all right.

She considered for a moment...how to help him? Her blood was no use, but perhaps her strength *was*.

Ria quietly began to pour some of her magic into him, a warm turquoise stream flowing from her hand into his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" He twisted his head, fiery eyes scorching into her. So proud, she thought, with the dour curve of that mouth, and yet striking.

"Hush," she told him. "I'm helping."

"I don't need help."

Ria half-smiled. How often had she heard that. "Liar."

He had stopped shivering. Good...she increased the magical energy gushing into her dark-haired soulmate, watched his face, fixed in meditation. She had spent a lot of time watching him, what seemed like forever and a day ago. Loving his beauty and his tigerish grace, wishing she had even a fraction of that.

Both saw the first faint tinge of colour return to Chatoya's face, a speckle of coral flecks. 

Cougar waited until his wrist healed again then sat back. Ria almost missed his soft, "Well, I have to lie around you. You wouldn't want the truth."

The bitterness in his voice shocked her.

It made anger leap in her, wounded pride. No, she thought, turquoise eyes stern. Stop. Think about what you say. Don't let your heart rule you, because your heart is a fickle thing.

"I know," she said finally. His head snapped around. "I think...maybe I ask too much of you." She forced her lips into a smile. "I guess you need your secrets."

The animosity seeped away, leaving him that singular, quiet person she seldom saw. "I do."

There was an awkward silence. Iry, Ria realised, had long gone. He didn't like to wait around; the lone wolf always had a hunt of his own. 

"Blue did this." Cougar's voice startled her. There was the same darkness in it, yet a terrible sorrow too. "He came here three years ago, before anyone was here except me, Jepar, Toya and Lisa. And another girl." He paused. "Sonj."

"I've never heard of her," Ria whispered. She barely dared speak. Cougar had never shared anything with her about his family. 

He plucked at the grass, shredding blades to pieces. "She was...a friend. Maybe more. I don't know. But Blue killed her. He's killed so many people, Ria." His voice was tired, regret soaking to its depths. "I used to count, you know, and I'd remember every name and I'd swear that I'd kill him for it. But one day...I just lost count. It wasn't long ago, just before I came here. But Sonj...she's the one I remember. Because all the others were just blood. But Sonj was family."

His golden eyes had dimmed to a lost hazel. *Oh*, Ria thought. *Oh,* you should have told me. 

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" she asked, tilting her head on one side. She didn't know it, but her face had that odd wistful tenderness that had inspired such sympathy in Jal.

"It hurt." He shrugged. His eyes were fixed on the ground. "I thought if you knew that he was like that, you might think I..." Cougar swallowed. "I was like that once. I used to love hurting people. And I came here and things changed. But I still wake up, and every morning I know that I could be like him if I wanted to. And I'm just scared that one day, I'll wake up and I *will* be that way."

"But can't you see the difference?" she said, disbelieving. No, she realised, looking at his face, he couldn't. "You choose not to be like that. That's what makes you different from him."

The hazel eyes flared into golden life, brighter than the sun above. He hesitated for a moment then said, almost shyly, "Thanks."

It wasn't a perfect, passionate reunion. It wasn't even really a ceasefire. It was just a little bit of understanding.

But, Ria thought, everything had to start somewhere, and felt her heart lift.

Chatoya moaned faintly, and as Ria's eyes flicked to her, the witch sat up unsteadily, her eyes dazed. "Oh goddess, what happened to me?" she muttered, then she shook her head. The mossy-green stare focused on the pair of them and Chatoya looked from one to the other. "I feel like death warmed up."

"Strange coincidence," Cougar said dryly.

She looked from one to the other, alertness creeping into her face. "Has something happened?"

Yes, Ria thought quietly, something has. Something more and less than anyone will ever know. 

****

Thoughts? Comments? Opinions? I'd love to hear what you think!


	15. Part FIfteen

Part 15

I'd love to hear what you think – please tell me, it makes my day!

Nightfire Part Fifteen

"They did *what*?" a furious Donna Ares shouted.

Her husky voice scored the air like a serrated blade, rich with its rage. That cloud of copper hair writhed and flailed as she stared from her meek, inert Pack, to Jal, slight and golden in the face of the wolf's wrath.

"They tortured me," Jal explained softly, but she didn't baulk. 

"They can *not* have!" Donna shouted. "They wouldn't *dare* break Pack oath!" Her emerald eyes blazed a scorching path over Jal to Cern. "Tell her, witch boy."

He grinned savagely. "Ask nicely, Donna."

The redhead's eyes narrowed dangerously, and he could see her fighting her temper. A fight she was bound to lose at some point. "*Please*," she said finally through gritted teeth.

He sighed, wondering how to explain the Pack's odd set of values. "Donna is the Pack's Altalupa. She leads them and her word is law. The night you turned up here, I made her swear she wouldn't harm you. Any oath Donna swears binds the Pack, because they have all sworn to obey her." He saw understanding begin to shine in Jal's eyes. "And if the Pack tortured you before the trial...they broke their oath."

"They did," Jal said forcefully. "They hurt me. I was only fighting back."

Hands on her hips, Donna turned on her horde of cowering wolves, her anger hanging like shards of flashing glass in the air. "Well? Is this true?"

Slowly, one melted into a sullen teenage boy. He glanced at Jal and Cern felt a tinge of unease. There was something in his face that he didn't like. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and the boy's aura came into focus. 

The pale shimmering silver of a young Nightworlder, laced with slats of red. Bloodshed, raw and quivering. This boy had killed. But that wasn't what was important...wavy lines squirmed over the silvery light, choking out all other colour and leaving only putrid green.

The colour of a lie.

"No, it ain't," he snapped loudly. "Raving lunatic attacked us. Think we're dumb enough to break th'law?"

"He's lying," Cern blurted. "I can see it in his aura."

The werewolf woman snorted. "That's ain't proof, witch boy. I don't know anything about auras." Her cold eyes flicked to the young wolf. "Romulus? Sure you don't want to change your story?"

"He's not lying," another wolf shrilled. A scrawny girl who kept licking her lips. Cern knew why they were lying. Donna didn't believe in first offences. If you were dead, she reasoned, that would teach you an extremely thorough lesson. "She's nuts! You saw her, Altalupa! She just went for Flick!"

~ Two-faced little creeps! ~ Jal said stridently in his head. He could see the memory of how they had toyed with her, beaten her, flashing through her head. ~ How can she be so blind? Why can't she *see*? ~

~ Donna's never been known for her insight, ~ he murmured, sending restful thoughts. Ocean songs, long hushed nights. Slowly, he felt her relax. ~ But she knows better than to believe the Pack's every word. ~

"Well," Donna said delicately, looking from her Pack to Jal. "It seems we have an impasse. But I ain't ever heard it said I'm unfair."

Cern often had, usually with the phrase 'and I didn't say that about the callous bitch'. Still, he kept quiet.

"So my judgement is this," she said, stalking around the clearing. Her land, her ruling. "There will be trial by combat, as before. But now it will be for the truth of this matter. If it goes in favour of my Pack, the charge of trespassing may also be accounted for. If it goes in favour of you, girl, it will be forgotten."

"You can't expect her to fight now!" he said angrily. Jal was laddered with cuts and bruises, and he could feel her exhaustion although they weren't touching. 

Donna turned that gem-hard stare on him. Looks of a temptress...mind of steel. "Then it shall be tomorrow night." Her full mouth curved. "Yes...the hunter's moon demands our respect, and what better way?"

He wanted to object, but before he could, Jal cut in, her voice breathy and her face flushed. "Tomorrow."

****

It was a long walk back, once Jepar left with a sweet smile and a murmur of hunting. Just her and Cern, and all the unspoken questions between them, a thousand thousand elusive spectres.

She was afraid. Jal had thought that her fear would fade under this newfound friendship. But it hadn't. The visions haunted her like distant, mumbling voices....she was losing control, and she didn't even know why.

That frightened her most of all.

She didn't know how to say any of it though. How could she tell someone about something so deep and jagged inside her, something so awful? How did she say: I have killed. I have taken other people's lives and laughed with joy while I did it.

She felt his quick glances, the way those puzzled lavender eyes would slide to her from time to time, sweeping over her face. It hurt her somehow, to know he didn't understand, couldn't understand.

It was a long time before he said anything.

"Why did you leave?" He had stopped, and there was an odd expression on his face. 

Jal swallowed, feeling icy numbness creep into her limbs. She didn't like it...it felt as though she might fall over at any moment. "What do you mean?"

His smile was crooked. But his gaze held steady and Jal thought she could drown in him, drown in the velvet violet depths. There was a summer set inside him, and all it touched began to bloom and grow.

"You leave in a hurry, for no reason at all. You fall into the Pack's trap...you kick seven kinds of hell out of them. I don't know what to think." His voice was quiet, rolling around her like a caressing wind.

She looked down. So here was where it would be. 

Here was where he would demand his answers, foul and blackened answers that would creep around her soul but never leave her lips. Here was where it would end, this sparkling, unsullied creation between them, because she would cling onto her secret to keep safe all of them. 

His touch was very light.

Light as the tickle of cut grass on the wind, so light it sent tiny tremors through her. It began on her cheek, grazed her mouth and moved down so he could lift her head and look at her properly.

Of all the horrors that lay in her past, none had left such marks on her soul as he could.

The clarity of his eyes struck her more than anything. The deep, resounding lucidity of a stained-glass bowl filled with water. Your life has been simple, she thought. Where are your hauntings? What stalks you in your dreams and hounds you in your days? 

The connection was draped around them in the faint unseen coolness of a mist, shivering her senses. 

"I can't tell you," she whispered, clinging to him, wanting the security of his warmth. The baking heat all around, and she was colder than the stones of a crypt. "I can't. You wouldn't understand."

"Look at me," he commanded. There was a note of steel in his voice Jal had never heard, and startled, she obeyed. Yes, he was smiling...but his eyes were dark and turbulent, and lost in places she dared not walk.

"When I was a lot younger, my little sister died," he told her with breathtaking calm. She had to squint to see his face, but when she did, she understood that the shadows on there were not cast solely by the sun. 

"She was murdered because she wasn't pure enough, and she died in front of my eyes. I nearly died that night as well. I can't even begin to explain to you how much it hurt. How long it took me to even pretend it was all right while I was falling apart inside because I wouldn't let anyone see that it hurt."

Her lips were parted on a soft breath of dismay. She could feel his anguish, half-crazed but controlled, shaking the soft, deep indigo of his mind. Tight pain from his hands as he held her. Oh, Jal thought. How could I have missed this? How?

"I got good at hiding my feelings," he explained on a rush of breath. His voice was fierce, even a little angry. "But...you can't. You can't keep everything inside, Jal. Everything just...exploded one day. I hurt someone, Jal. I nearly killed them. The only thing that stopped me was a friend. They'd...found out about me when I wouldn't tell them, and they wanted to help. They *wanted* to listen." 

She was utterly spellbound, watching his emotions saying a thousand times more than mere words could. 

"So don't tell me I don't understand, don't. I *****do*. I've been there, okay, I know it hurts like hell, and..." 

This new revelation spun about her mind, cartwheeling. And Jal realised that before, she had been wrong to think him as all gentle, all tender...he hid behind a mask as well as she did. Better, maybe. There was strength in him, the quiet strength of a mountain, unnoticeable until it moved.

"...I just wish it would *stop*."

She was surprised when he kissed her.

It wasn't the sweetness of last time. This was a kiss to make her blood bay, thrilling and demanding, and Jal welcomed it. It sizzled like fire in her mouth, and set her soul alight. His touch was sure as the hunt, and she had to wonder dazedly which of them was predator and which prey...neither, neither, she decided, for the hunt had not this delicious passion and wildness.

The connection surged around them, and her senses dissolved into flames.

****

"Sit down," Ria ordered Cougar and Chatoya as the three walked, stumbled and staggered respectively in. The lamia and witch obeyed, Chatoya wondering if she was as ghostly pale as Cougar. "I'm fixing coffee."

"You might find a blood transfusion of more help," a voice remarked from behind them. It was dark and droll, filled with a power that turned Chatoya's bones to pure ice and made her words freeze on her lips.

All three stares leapt to the open doorway, and the cold smile of Blue Malefici. He was lean in a black T-shirt and white, blue and black camouflage trousers, his stance screaming of the patient, sinister hunter.

"And a lock," he purred, cruelty filling his voice like rich liqueur. "You would have thought after all the times the three of you have narrowly missed death, you'd be a little less cavalier about security."

Chatoya pressed her lips together tightly. Something was nagging at the far reaches of her mind, just out of reach, and when she looked at his impassive face, it strengthened. In his stare, the ice leapt out at her, promising to freeze her like it had frozen him. Under the surface of his eyes, the blue of dawn on a primal world, faint, trapped emotions beat.

"I hardly think you count as a danger," Cougar drawled, the old familiar anger beginning to edge into his tone. The old, familiar fear. "This is the second time you've managed not to kill Toya."

~ Don't give him ideas, ~ she flashed at him quickly and was shocked to find how much those few telepathic words took out of her. She had to be weak. 

Blue strolled in assertively, kicking the door shut behind him. "Oh, come on, brother dear. I can't kill my soulmate any more than you can kill yours." He yawned. "Such a pity. It does rather limit one to torture."

Chatoya froze. He had told them...no, she realised, Cougar didn't look at all surprised. He saw her face and gave a faint, gloomy grin.

~ I've known for three years, ~ he said. ~ And I can see why you didn't say anything. It'd be like announcing you were marrying an alligator, only with less teeth and more downright viciousness. ~ 

In a way, she felt relief. Someone knew; she was that small bit safer. But...she had to admit that this vile, terrible being was her soulmate. That she knew his mind, knew his tainted wit and calm sanity. 

~ You look positively thrilled, ~ Blue murmured. He was looking around the room casually, but she could sense that all his attention was trained on her. And like the crack of a whip, she felt his chilling mind-touch in hers, seeking for something...and leaving, satisfied. ~ The sordid little secret is out...you know, you provide such wonderful leverage for any of your enthusiastic friends who try to kill me. ~ 

"And who is this stranger?" Blue continued aloud blithely, gaze sweeping Ria. The girl stood, immobile. Not afraid though. Perplexed. "Could this be the lovely lady I have heard absolutely nothing about?"

Ria gave him one of her wide-eyed, naive looks. "And you must be that murdering git everyone hates."

His smile widened. "I was aiming for avidly loathes, but I can settle for mere hate. No sugar, no milk."

"What?" 

"My coffee." No, you, Chatoya thought as his hooded eyes flashed. No sweetening of that reptilian soul, no paling of his cruel will or cool stare. "I like to indulge my whims now and again." Was it her imagination, or did the eyes skip to her as she felt a dim, mesmerizing tug on her senses?

Ria's face became briefly blank, Chatoya saw. As though she was talking to Cougar...could it be those two were actually communicating? Cougar never looked away from Blue, but Ria nodded as though agreeing to something and went into the kitchen with a swing of her red-blond hair. Yes...they were talking. At last.

"Hardly your type," the vampire said derisively, arching his eyebrows. Cougar didn't react. "Not really blond, is she, and certainly lacking on the hourglass figure. Though her time may still be running out."

Cougar's dark head snapped to his younger brother. "You lay one—"

"I will leave the laying to you," Blue cut him off flatly. "I have no interest in that diminutive half-breed – half-human, isn't she? – darling of yours. Yet."

Chatoya found her voice at last as moss-green and ancient blue eyes clashed. She felt herself being sucked into the pitiless, primordial pits of his stare, however she struggled not to. "Then why are you here?"

"Divine creation, one assumes," he stated, folding his arms. "But here, now, I'm giving you a warning."

Cougar snorted. "Don't tell me you grew a conscience. I'd believe the apocalypse had come first."

That same small, unnerving smile still sat on Blue's face. "What you believe is of no interest to me. But if you go down to the woods tomorrow, you're in for a big surprise."

She frowned. What on earth was he talking about? She couldn't read his face, or see anything except casual grace as he leaned against the wall. "Why would you warn us?"

He straightened, quick and deft. "Keep away. All of you, keep away," he advised lazily. "Or I *will* be entirely responsible for what befalls you." His cobalt hair was a flame against the pastel lounge. "I can be *very* creative with people who vex me."

He left as Ria came back in, taking the coffee with him.

"Damn," Cougar said vengefully. "I would have liked to throw hot coffee all over the bastard."

Ria shivered. "Why was he warning us? What against?"

The lamia took the mug from her, not noticing the scalding heat. "Whatever it is, I'm going to find out."

I know, Chatoya thought distantly, I know I know...but I just can't reach it. 

****

Jal gasped as fire shot up around her with a fierce roar in jagged, flickering walls. She shielded her eyes from the blaze as the reek of smoke began to choke her. Oh, oh, what *was* this? Coughing, she waved at it with her free hand and stumbled back, bewildered.

Arms caught her, supported her, but whoever it was shook fractionally. Her mind cleared, and she leaned back into Cern, reaching for his hand. Gods that were, he was cold. Cold! In this heat! She wriggled around in his grasp, her eyes begin to stream from the choking smoke and her skin tingling painfully in the heat, to peer at his face.

His eyes were wild, flicking about in horror. Smoke grimed his face already, as she supposed it must have tarnished her gilt hair, making the pallid tone of his skin even more prominent. Moon above, he had to be terrified...but controlling it, barely. As she watched, she could see him taking that fear and pushing it back, battling it down into the stronghold of his soul.

~ Where is this? ~ she asked almost calmly. Mustered all her courage to stay still and hold on. Over his shoulder, she was starting to make out shapes beyond the wall of hellfire. What looked like furniture, antique furniture at that. Worth a few bucks, the tiny, vampire-inspired thought sprung into her mind.

He swallowed. ~ My memory. This is...how my sister died. I went to get help...the building collapsed. ~

Such terse words, but his pain made each harsh. Beneath the rustling cry of the fire, she thought she could hear shouting. Maybe a scream piercing the air. She nestled in close to him, hearing the frantic beat of his heart with her enhanced senses.

And for a tiny fraction of an instant, she wondered what it would sound like if she ripped it from his body. She thrust the horrible thought away, not knowing where it had come from. 

~ It can't hurt you, ~ she said instead, and the truth of what she was saying dawned on her. ~ This is just memory. Those flames can't burn anymore. Look. ~

She stepped away from him, ignoring his quick warning, and plunged her hand into the flames, hoping she wasn't about to make a horrible mistake.

No pain. No heat. No roasting flesh. The flames suddenly fell, collapsing into piles of simmering lights, and then were gone. 

~ Memory can't hurt, ~ Jal said strongly. Yes. How stupid of her to be so afraid of showing him her past, showing him what Kaajen had done. It was in a far off place, and it couldn't touch her now. She looked up at him ruefully, to see the wild fear subsiding and realisation in his face. ~ I guess we've both been pretty stupid. ~

Her heart however, still pounded with shock. Goddess, he had to mean something to her if she was prepared to stick her hand in burning flames. Jal considered that. Yes. He meant something.

He tilted his head to one side, surveying her thoughtfully. She had the feeling that he considered his next words. ~ You're...not what I thought. ~

~ Neither are you, ~ she retorted and was pleased when he grinned abashedly. ~ I love it when you smile. ~

She caught her breath as she realised her words.

His eyes widened fractionally, filling with indefinable emotions. ~ Do you...do you, Jal? ~

She thought long before replying. But she had said it, it was here and there was no doubt in her mind. Wrinkling her nose, an old habit, she thought, to hell with it. ~ Yes, ~ she said recklessly. ~ Yes, I do. ~

His mouth curved further, his expression playful – but beneath that, other, more serious emotions that Jal saw, and that made her heart leap. ~ Do you know... ~ he told her cautiously, like a man walking across broken glass, ~ I think the feeling might be mutual. ~

She had a ridiculous urge to shapeshift and give voice to the feelings that had no words. But instead, she took the hand he held out to her, and looked into his eyes and saw the pain falling away like withered leaves. Around them, the real world filled itself in hazily, like the strokes of a child's sketch.

He kissed her then, with the heart-melting sweetness she loved so about him. Loved...how strange and fitting it felt. She didn't know how to describe love...all she knew was that every touch was like catching hold of a lightning bolt and streaking into the bright beyond. All she knew...was that she didn't know.

~ By the way, ~ he whispered, ~ I never told anyone that before. ~

And she liked it.

Jal smiled. "We've done our trial of fire," she told him confidently. "It's over now."

She was, of course, horribly wrong.

****

Your thoughts would be adored, treasured and worshipped :-)


	16. 

Nightfire Part Seventeen

My huge thanks to those of ye who commented on the last parts J Thanks for telling me what you think! Thank you Dead Flower (Hey, glad you're liking J!) Diomede ( I just love writing…the words fall out. Jepar's soulmate is Tali. It's in another story.), Kirsty Marie (I hope your finals went well! Thanks :-) There's about four more chapters to come now.) Me (Thanks – I enjoyed writing Firefly, but this series is more fun. I know the characters that well! Ta!), Myst (I would bow…but my knees are killing. Don't fall down stairs. It's a stupid thing to do.), Persephone (Sometimes I just get these bouts of kindness where I feel compelled to be nice to my characters. It won't do. Thanks!) Sapamfa (Thanks for the encouragement J Jal and Cern are fun to write.), Starrika (Thank you so much! ::grins:: Glad you like – I'll try to spot more often.) Starwisher (I know, it's evil...but I like cliffhangers. They're addictive! I'm glad you're liking it – thanks for telling me!).

Comments would be treated like a long-lost friend - welcomed, adored and a sight for sore eyes :-) I love hearing what you think, goods and bads, it makes my day! 

Nightfire Part Sixteen

By the time Cern and Jal got back, Chatoya was on the phone, Cougar was plotting how to murder his brother, and Ria was sitting, watching him. Jal knew she had a stupid grin on her face, but she couldn't help herself. How long had it been since she'd felt this happy? Too long, that was for sure.

"Well, I wonder what *you* two were doing," Cougar drawled sardonically, his eyes devilish, leaving no doubt as to just what *he* thought they'd been up to. "Get out of the Pack's clutches, did you?"

"Not quite," Cern said, taking a seat and absently flicking on the stereo. "Jal's got to fight them tomorrow. But going on today...she'll kick their asses." His confidence warmed her, and so did his gaze.

Ria leaned over and whispered meaningfully, "Well? What *were* you doing?"

She could feel herself blushing. The memories of that afternoon played out in her head. She wanted to live them again, to be caught in that moment of perfect understanding forever. "Talking..."

Toying with the heart pendant around her neck, Ria chuckled. It lit her up. "In body language?"

From the corner of her eye, Jal could see Cougar watching the witch. "Seems like I'm not the only one," she said gleefully. "Are you working things out?"

"Mmm-hmm." As the music crashed into electric guitars, Ria twisted herself round. "Hey, can you turn that down? I'm trying to talk here."

The dark-haired lamia gave her a rakish grin. "But I'm just a teenage dirtbag, baby," he protested. Jal didn't really get why the other three laughed. "Music's meant to be loud!"

"Yeah, I don't—" Ria began.

"Hey!" Chatoya cut in, cradling the phone between her ear and shoulder as she tried to get their attention. "Guys, any of you seen Jepar?"

"He went off hunting," Jal chirped, remembering the cheetah boy's bright smile. "Something about deer? It sounded kind of...gross."

Chatoya frowned and turned back to her conversation. "Weird. No, Tali, last thing we know is he went hunting three hours back." The other four tuned in shamelessly. "Really? That *is* weird. Tried the Dahlia? Not there? Well...shouldn't worry about it. You know Jep, he's probably just met up with some of the local shifters. And they're all traipsing round wreaking havoc. Yeah. Bye!"

"Jepar's missing?" Cougar guessed, not bothering to hide the fact they had all been eavesdropping. "Well...remember what happened last time we thought he was missing?"

The others grinned while Jal looked around, confused. Cern explained dryly, "He called us the next day – from Vegas. Turned out the idiot had meant to catch a bus from the lake to us, went off daydreaming and missed his stop by about a hundred miles."

Jal giggled, enjoying the affectionate contempt in his voice. The rest of the evening passed peacefully, chatting and trying to fix the stereo and for the first time, Jal slept deeply and peacefully, with no nightmares to haunt her and the lingering impression of a goodnight kiss on her lips.

****

Jepar Jubatus was, in fact, lost. 

It was a new experience. One moment, he had been running through the place that had been his home for nearly four years, the next, his vision blurred and everything seemed unfamiliar.

The woods were nothing but a mass of green, endlessly confusing, dim with shadows and darkness. Jepar turned around, instinctively looking for somewhere to hide. This was unknown, it was danger. He wasn't safe here...but how could he get lost? He knew this place...it was *his*.

I don't feel so good, he thought, as his head began to throb heavily. He was cooking, *roasting* in invisible fires. It hurt, it hurt and he wanted it to *stop*...this wasn't right. There was someone he should reach out to, someone who would help. But...the name had slipped away from him, leaving only blankness.

"Jepar?" 

He looked up at the voice, fighting the urge to shapeshift and run. 

"Are you all right?" Suddenly something was clear through the blur of pain. There was a girl there, with her head to one side, and her hand outstretched as if to help. There was a star on one finger, he thought dimly, glowing with a strange garnet light. 

He tried to identify her. "I don't know." His voice sounded groggy even to him. He could imagine what she was seeing. Him, slumped down and trying so damn hard to fight away the pain. "I...don't think so. My head hurts." Hurts. God, what an understatement. His head was one tight ball of stabbing pain.

"It's okay," she told him soothingly. "I'll look after you."

Ruby. That was who she was, with her short crimson hair and pale face. She peered at him anxiously, seeming to look for something in his face. Whatever it was, she must have found it, because she smiled.

Was it Ruby he should have called? he wondered as he squinted up at her. Somehow, the pain seemed to fade a little looking at her. She was a blazing princess, drenched in crimson and flushing coral. Her face was delicate, dominated by her mouth which was a vivid scarlet. Wisps of red hair clung to her cheekbones. 

But I don't even *like* her—

The heat and the hurt swamped his mind, and he curled into a ball, trying to send it away. When it was gone, he couldn't even remember what he'd been thinking. Just pleasant numbness. Better than the pain.

"Jay!" She was crouched down by him, the star on her finger glowing more brightly than ever. "Come on, come with me. I'll look after you."

Will you, he questioned silently, but took her hand because he didn't know what else to do. He couldn't remember if there was anyone else except her. Or why he was here...all he had was his name and hers. 

Her secret smile broadened. "It'll be all right now," she reassured. "It'll be all right."

There was very little Jepar remembered after that.

****

Morning broke with the door slamming back and a voice screaming for Cougar and Cern get their asses downstairs *right now*.

Jal staggered out of her room, blinking sleep away. She had been warm and safe for the first time in too long, and then that *voice* had cut into her head like a chainsaw. 

The lovely girl at the bottom of the stairs was Tali, the dragon with the red-brown hair and anguished face. 

"Oh god," Cougar moaned, clinging to his doorframe. He was in Calvin Kleins and not much else, looking sleepy and well...adorable. "I don't mind women screaming my name at night, but this early is just not on."

"It's Jepar!" Tali yelled, running up the stairs two at a time. She looked...upset. "I can't sense him!"

"Count yourself lucky and go back to bed!" a muffled voice came from the closed door of Cern's room. "Do you know what time it is?"

"Time you started getting worried," the girl shouted, her voice like a waterfall as she stormed past Jal and kicked the door open. "I can't *feel* him! He's been gone all night."

Through the door, Jal saw her soulmate, oh, that word was sweet to think, sit up, suppressing a yawn. 

Oh my.

He had, she realised with an electric jolt, a very nice body. Compact, tanned, muscled...tempting. 

The purple eyes were still dark and drowsy. "C'mon, Tali, it's not like he can't take care of himself."

"Maybe Ruby's got him tied up in her basement," suggested the lamia.

Tali turned on him furiously, waving a finger at him. Jal was startled to see Cougar hit the floor. "It's not funny! And *what* are you doing? It's not like I'm armed."

"You're a dragon," Cougar snapped. "Your arm *is* your weapon. I don't want to get made into the world's biggest chicken twister just yet."

The girl's sapphire eyes dimmed briefly as her shoulders sagged. "I'm careful," she said flatly. "Look, it's not like Jep. I've never been this long without talking to him."

"Maybe he got into trouble with the Pack," Jal chimed in, trying not to cower at the intensity of Tali's gaze. Her eyes, they were wrong somehow. Too old. Too knowing. Like she had seen everything and didn't think much of it. "It's...easy to do."

The dragon seemed to deflate. "Are you sure? It's just...with Ruby..."

"Look," Cern said reasonably, "she may well have fallen out of her proverbial tree, which was pretty stunted anyway, but Jep's a shapeshifter. How's she going to coerce him?"

"Yeah, piss him off and it's hell in a handbasket," the sardonic vampire put in. He was leaning on the doorframe again, his black hair demonic in the morning muss. "Don't worry, Tali. If he's not back and he's not called by this evening, then we'll agonize and all. Being out in the hunter's moon isn't a good idea."

Jal frowned; a faint discord went through her at the mention of the hunter's moon. Distantly, she heard a howl... Then nothing, only the realisation that she was ravenous. The hunter's moon...hadn't someone told her about that once? But it was like the words were in another language, one Jal didn't know anymore. 

"All right..." Tali sighed. "I couldn't have breakfast here, could I? I didn't bother to stop."

"Help yourself," Cougar muttered. "We don't have any meat though. Someone nicked it all. I'm in the shower first – you lot keep out," he added and looked at Jal slyly. "Unless of course—"

"Say it and I kill you," Cern said, innocently hefting his alarm clock. Cougar shut up.

Another day, Jal thought. She could get used to this. And no school...just Circle Strange, for an entire day.

Until the wolves...but that was no big deal.

****

Darkstar glared at the phone until it caught fire. "It's not working," he said in dangerously vibrating voice.

"Could that be because you're not supposed to set it alight before you dial?" Zara offered tiredly. "Someone's onto us, aren't they?"

She was worried. Very worried. 

Dark had finally translated the scroll that came with the painting. And when she found the truth of what Jallakri ap Ganra was, she had been horrified. A mistake. A relic. A buried weapon that resurfaced. 

Nightfire had made her ten thousand years ago, in their efforts to keep the races pure. That had been their original driving force, and they had created a creature that would eradicate every half-breed in an instant. A werewolf who drew her power directly from the moon itself, a merging of magic and mutation. 

But times had changed, and Nightfire changed with them. Its aim was no longer the purity of the races, but the power. Jallakri ap Ganra became obsolete, unwanted...uncontrollable. She had run rampant for centuries while Nightfire desperately chased her, until finally, she was caught and subdued, forced into a deep sleep. 

But she had woken again, roused by a resounding fight between two dragons. 

She had woken...and the time of year when she would be all-powerful was here. Was *tonight*.

The hunter's moon. It was Nightfire who had created the phrase, named after their killing machine. For she was the hunter beyond all, and the moon was her source of power that night. 

Ria, Cern...both half-breeds. Even Cougar, with his Harman-tainted Redfern blood might be at risk.

And someone was stopping them from getting through. The phone lines were filled with static, the faxes garbled. There was no way to get on to the Internet, or reach anyone except by speech. Too far to telepath, not a single communication spell working. They were, in a word, screwed.

"How do we tell them?" Zara whispered, her face haunted.

Dark looked over at her, his black eyes seeming darker than ever. But determined. "We go ourselves," he said grimly. "We shouldn't have waited this long. I'd hoped..." Hoped it was just a glitch, she knew.

Hope was all there was now.

****

It was as if he woke up from a dream.

Jepar blinked, and the world was clear. He was...in a house he didn't know, a house strangely bare of any personality. And he was hungry. He should have hunted yesterday, he realised. But he had felt strange, hadn't he? There had been pain, pain beyond his reckoning and—

Ruby.

However he said that word, it didn't sound good. It didn't feel good.

And a star on her finger. That meant something. Damn. Couldn't think what. There was noise nearby that sounded like the clean clink of plates and glasses. He followed it, getting up to find no pain. Good.

The ominous feeling grew steadily, until he didn't want to look into the kitchen and see what was there. But he was done running away, he had given that up long ago. Deep breath, and he stepped in.

Ruby. Washing dishes, with her back to him and singing under her breath. Dishes? That...was not good. How long had he been here? He glanced at his watch.

A day? A *day*? No...

The star was on the side too. The one that had been on her finger. It still glowed with that unholy light—

Magick! His teacher's voice, so long ago, came into his head. ~ Although most magick is invisible, powerful magick, if it is mere power without finesse, can be seen by our eyes. It appears as a bright light, often mistaken for a reflection of the sun or a star... ~ He squinted until his eyes watered. It was a ring. A magicked ring. She had taken it off to wash up, and it had betrayed her. It had no power over him now.

How could she have? Damn it, she knew how he felt about people messing with his head. They all did. 

Even looking at it made the fogginess come back. Jepar looked away, his mind racing. She had used magic on him. A spell...god, he couldn't remember *anything* of the last day. A hiss of fury escaped him.

And Ruby turned. The look on her face was avid, hungry. "Oh, you're awake!" she said.

That *really* worried him. Still, he thought...at least I'm still fully clothed. That's got to be a start.

"Oh yes," he purred, his anger beginning to take over. "I'm completely, utterly and absolutely awake."

She giggled. It was like nails being dragged down a blackboard. "Oh *good*."

But as he didn't smile back, or drop his eyes, her smile dimmed and the first vestiges of fear came into her face. "You bewitched me," he said very quietly. The anger boiled in his veins and he had to fight to keep calm. "You put a spell on me. How. Dare. You?"

"I..." Her eyes flicked about desperately. They lighted on the ring, and he saw what she meant to do. He was too far away to grab it, but Jepar narrowed his eyes and pulling on the jade stream of energy that lay within him, kinetically *flung* it into the basin off water, then took off, dodging out the door.

And his last thought, as she scrabbled for it with a cry, was: so much for not running.

****

Evening drew down fast, and Blue Malefici moved to the Pack's clearing with supple ease. Everything had to go right. One slip...and it could be fatal. 

He glanced up. Clouds everywhere, obscuring the moon. Good. That would dim Jallakri's powers fractionally. And of course, he had kept her out of contact with any sort of blood. During the fight yesterday, it had been easy enough to stop everyone bleeding with a scrap of dragon power. For something so destructive, it healed with remarkable simplicity.

Ruby had been useful. He had no doubt she would destroy Jepar Jubatus's relationship very easily with that trinket of a ring. It amused him to see how bonds were so quickly snapped, so meticulously mended. 

When in doubt, bribery and terrorism covered almost every situation.

There were always exceptions, of course.

But he was sure forbidding his brother and group of friends to come here would bring them out in force. That would keep the rest of the Pack occupied. He just had to wait for the right moment in the duel...and Jallakri would be dead. Mission over, get a gold star, inscribe your name on the honours roll. 

It was risky for him, yes, considering that he was descended from a part-werewolf and part-vampire line. He was a prime target for her. But that was half the fun.

It only took him a few moments to set up the wards around the clearing, a strong line of black dragonfire. He left them inactivated, waiting for the Pack and Circle Strange to arrive. After that...no one got in, and on one got out.

At all.

His blue eyes gleamed once in the growing darkness, and he settled back to wait. 

****

"I wasn't expecting company," Jal murmured. There was a kind of nervous fluttering in her stomach. She was going to fight the Pack. A werewolf. She thought she knew how to shift...but what if it went wrong? What the hell did she do then?

"Tough. You got us." Cougar Redfern flashed her a dangerous smile. They were nearing the Pack now, Cern beside her, and Ria with a tight twist to her mouth. Lisa Ochai was chatting with Chatoya, their voices low. Most of them armed to the teeth, and in some cases, with teeth. Their presence was comforting.

"Blue's here." It was Chatoya, the dark-haired witch that Jal didn't know too well. "Nearby. I think I can find him."

"Not on your own," Lisa said quickly. "I'll—"

"No." The witch cut her off flatly. Jal half-turned and saw the determination on Chatoya's face. "Look, I'm the only one he can't, *can't* kill, okay? And I've got enough of Cougar's blood to make me equal to him. And *my* power. I'll be fine – go with Jal. You know what the Pack are like when they lose."

"They lose control," Cern said softly in her ear. Her mouth had gone dry and chalky...damn, why had she had to fall in that trap?

Because of the vision, she answered herself at once. But they've stopped now.

By the time she had glanced round again, Chatoya was gone, nothing but a shadow fading into the gloom.

****

"So you're here." Donna Ares, her eyes a red slick. In the shadows, she was a dim silhouette. "Shame 'bout the clouds. There's gaps though...we'll see the moon soon enough."

Jal nodded stiffly. The fluttering in her stomach had increased, until she felt like a crow had been set free inside her, trying to beat its way out. 

"Brought company, I see," the werewolf continued. The white gleam might have been her smile. "Well...if you're ready? Romulus?"

The sullen boy came forward, his eyes the same hellish crimson. Jal stepped forward, her legs like lead. Gods, was she really about to do this?

Donna's voice snapped across the air as Jal felt fear shoot through her like hot magma.

"Begin!"

He shifted so fast she wasn't even aware, only saw a dark blur looming at her. She dived sideways before she had even realised, rolling her body into a tight ball. Hard-packed earth under her, and she was on her feet, her body melting away. Freedom, glorious freedom as she slid into her wolf-form and felt the strength slide into her bones.

They circled. Jal snapped the air, scenting his fear on the air. Oh, he was afraid all right. Afraid. That made him prey. Her night vision showed her the people standing around, all with wary eyes, ready to move.

Some of them for a moment seemed curiously bright, a rancid orange colour that screamed to her they were wrong, they should not exist—

The wolf sprang...she felt her own body leave the ground, moving of its own accord and moving on pure reflex. She hit him, swiped at him and dug her teeth into messy fur, and below that, flesh.

The scent of blood in her mouth, thick and rich and potent—

Then the clouds parted, and a strong whir ray of moonlight slipped through.

It touched her, and she felt a harsh jolt that rocked her forwards, onto her belly and drew a throaty, wild scream from her throat. Her eyes snapped up to the bloated blind eye of the moon, and flashed a bright silver.

The power stampeded her, filling her every cell with white-hot fire...

Fire and blood. It was all that was needed.

Light exploded into her vision, and Jal was lost.

The hunter was here.

****

I would **love** to hear your thoughts.

Ki


	17. 

Nightfire Part Seventeen

Nightfire Part Seventeen

Chatoya could feel his presence, deep inside her like a simmering blue flame. 

Close by. No doubt about that. She followed her instincts, moving out past the clearing as the others went in, pushing through the overhanging branches slowly, squinting at the shapes that loomed from the shadows. 

The ground began to slop upwards, until it evened out on a plateau, one that, she realised with a start, overlooked the Pack clearing directly.

And there he was.

Her soulmate. Her damned, despised soulmate, standing and looking down on the clearing. If she didn't have so much donated vampire blood floating round her body, she wouldn't have seen him or the disturbingly faint smile he wore.

"Stop it," she said softly. Her voice cleaved the heavy silence and his head snapped round. Blue Malefici's eyes blazed once, a clear blue.

"I see you're recovered," he said dryly. Damn him, how could he sit here and be so unruffled? "Go away."

She laughed harshly. "No chance. You're going to kill Jal." She knew it with bone-deep certainty. 

"The thought had crossed my mind. It's funny how rarely I like to welcome my own painful death." He straightened, a god glowing in the gloom to her vision. "Don't interfere."

He said it so coolly. Chatoya felt her anger flare. "Don't order me about."

"You haven't the faintest comprehension of what that girl is," he said, gesturing to the clearing. Chatoya glanced down; she saw Jal drop into a fighting stance, saw her friends standing nearby, waiting. Cern's face was tense. 

"I know your goddamned organisation wants her," she spat, calculating how close she could get to him before attacking. She edged forward, trying to make it appear a thoughtless motion. "That's reason enough to stop you."

He laughed, and the sound shocked her. "You don't have a clue what you're dealing with."

"Fine. Explain to me." She was close now, a metre or two away, close enough to glare at his hard face, to see now that there was a slender black line of energy that hugged his body, crackling and rippling. Dragon magick. 

Below, they heard a yelp. Blue shook his head. "No time," he said shortly, his eyes fixed on the fight now. The line of energy flared up around him and she felt an answering echo all around. Wards. He had set up wards around the clearing. Gods...the Circle, they were trapped. The Pack too. He was going to kill them all—

She was startled at her own speed, enhanced by that precious vampire power. She hit him hard with all her magick and all her strength, breaking his link to the wards. The energy died, draining away in a flash.

In that one instant, she realised he had tied every ounce of magick he had into those wards.

He was planning to take on Jal on his own. Why?

And above, the hunter's moon broke through the clouds, white rays lancing across the woods.

Her own thought came back to her, one she hadn't even known she had. ~ When I see the hunter's moon, I will remember. ~

The knowledge flooded her head, knocking her to her knees. She knew what Blue had planned, all of it. She knew what Jal was, what she would do. She knew *everything*.

Chatoya had made a terrible mistake.

****

She was awake. At last.

She shifted back into a human, tilting her face up to the chill light of the moon. Oh yes. This was her time, this was how it should be. No more fighting the weak human persona that lay here. No more toying with mind-games and visions. Just her, the hunter. Perfect and free.

A flare of power – some fool trying to keep her in. For a moment, she was alarmed, the cool crystal of her eyes brightening. She strode towards the wards – she had to get out, she had to be free – and felt them disappear as suddenly as they had appeared.

The surge of power came from above. She lifted her head and sniffed the air. Two people, a young male who was oozing with power, a female full of fear. It was he who had done this, tried to stop her.

"Jal?" 

The voice sent alarm through her. This voice had the power to ensnare and hold her, to defeat her purpose. She could not allow that.

The powerful one above was trying to trap her again. But she broke into a run, feeling the ground firm beneath her and as she felt the power build, gathered speed and *sprang*—

Her body flew horizontal through the air, arms stretched out and her toes pointed. She felt the wards slam closed, but she was through, she was hitting the ground and leaping up again to run into the darkness of the night.

Behind her, she realised the boy, the one with the mellow, enmeshing voice had followed her. But she was faster, she was moving away from him easily. 

She was free. She was the hunter. And she could smell her prey ahead.

****

"You little *fiend*." His voice was still calm, but ice floes cracked under his words. Blue hauled Chatoya to her feet and shook her so hard she nearly fell over again, his eyes two pyres. She heard the neat snap of her arm breaking and cried out. He ignored her. "Do you have any comprehension of what you've just unleashed?"

"Yes," she said, her voice dead. Goddess, if only she had *known*.

He stopped and looked hard at her. "You do know," he said finally. "I told you to keep away. I warned you that girl was a danger." His mouth curled. "If I could kill you, I would," he said softly. "But I can't. But I am going to destroy you, have no doubt of that. I warned you what would happen if you meddled."

~ I can rip your soul in two, ~ he had told her. Looking at the fiery fathoms of his eyes, she didn't doubt that. She swallowed and stepped away from him. Her arm was healing already, the pain nothing but a dull throb.

"What are you going do?" she asked.

His expression made her want to curl up and die. "Pick daisies and sing Yellow Submarine. What do you *think*? It's fortunate that I've planned for this."

"Planned?" she queried. His cold rage was terrifying...she ha never *seen* Blue Malefici anything but cool and calm and once, annoyed. But in a mood like this...she didn't know what he would do.

"Unlike you, I believe in checking my facts before I go running in," he drawled. The venom there made her flush, made her angry. A scornful glance. "Try not to do anything else insanely stupid today. And if you do, don't expect *me* to pick up the pieces."

"Don't you dare be *righteous* about this!" she said furiously. "You're doing this to protect your bloody organisation and yourself."

"Correct," he said, producing a knife that made her swallow hard and look away. And pray he didn't have time to be vengeful. "But which one of us just made me necessary?" 

He was gone moments later.

Chatoya stood for a long time, her hands to her temples, trying to make sense of this new knowledge in her head. Jal killed half-breeds, anything impure...and she had stopped Blue killing her.

The idea that Bane Malefici was doing *anything* for the good of humanity was too hard to swallow. No, it was simply that the world's interests coincided with Nightfire's. And of course, she thought suddenly, he was no pureblood. Saving the world? Saving himself, more like.

But at least Circle Strange were safe, locked in the clearing with the Pack. A Pack who didn't like to be confined – and who wouldn't like being confined with Circle Strange, especially after Cougar made it his business to run over as many of them as possible. Just the sight of a black Porsche as enough to set most of the Pack foaming at the mouth, and one or two at the brain. 

Locked in...she should go down and see if she could lift the wards.

It was something to do. But it didn't make her feel any better.

****

Jal was crouched in a tree. Her prey was close by, crashing through the woods, panicked. Chasing after the golden blur of a cheetah that had just lurched into the space below, no doubt. Pure blood that one, glowing with a gentle red light. Safe. Of no interest to her. 

But this searcher...she had been human once. And she had become of the night. She was not pure; she was a useless thing, a parasite. She had no use but to feed on others, and the golden light of humanity had mixed with the red of the night to create the sickly orange hue that meant death.

She had known her once, in that other life. When she had been only weak, before the hunter had awakened. The name of a stone, red as the life within her. Ruby...Ruby Luthman. That was her prey's name. 

She stiffened as the prey came into view. Red hair, red eyes, and something that smelled metallic clutched in one hand. The made vampire smelled of fear, fear and desire. Jal grinned slowly; her teeth skinned back, she drew in breath...

"There you are." The girl grinned slowly, but there was panic in her voice.

The cheetah's form rippled briefly and became a boy with mussed golden hair and angry, trapped eyes. "Leave me alone. I don't want you."

The girl flinched, then steadied herself. "You will. You don't want Alisha. She's all wrong for you. Don't delude yourself about her."

The boy was looking for an escape, but saw he had nowhere else to go. Determination hardened his face. "I've had that delusion for eight hundred years. I've grown to like it. Much though I hate to be the bearer of bad news, psychotics really aren't my style."

"Funny," she said sharply. "I'd have thought that was exactly what they'd be."

Wariness flickering on the boy's face. Curious, Jal thought. She looked at the tainted one, whose smile was triumphant. She knows something about him, she decided. How petty. "Why are you working for Blue Malefici?"

The girl was still approaching the shapeshifter, who stood his ground. "How did you do that?"

His smile was colder than Jal had ever seen, the humour in his eyes snuffed out. There was something very Nightworld about this one, she thought. Secrets buried, darkness unearthed. "It's all in your head."

"Mind-reading." The girl seemed to have noticed the change in the boy's tones, but nothing could have induced her to stop now. "But don't try and change the subject." She stopped dead, about a metre or two from the boy, and when she spoke, her voice was hushed. "*I know what you did.*"

The boy's smile didn't waver, but it warmed a fraction. "Oh, he told you, did he?"

The girl seemed startled, taken aback at his casual confidence.

The shapeshifter laughed carelessly. "I know...you were expecting me to be ashamed, right? To say I'm sorry for what I did. But I'm not. The only thing I regret is that my friend died because she messed with something she didn't understand." Sorrow a sting his voice. "I just took revenge."

"A dozen times over," the vampire whispered. There was something new in her face when she looked at he boy now. Jal couldn't read it. Respect perhaps, or disbelief. "You murdered twelve people."

"Thirteen actually." The British accent was cool and polite. "It was a baker's dozen. Kind of appropriate really. Don't look so shocked, Ruby. I dealt with my past long before you came along."

"Does Alisha...?" The question seemed dragged from the girl before she could stop herself. Slowly, Jal saw her adjusting, rethinking how to deal with the boy. She still wanted him, that was plain. She didn't care about what the boy had done...but she cared that he didn't care. That bothered her.

The boy raised an eyebrow, the green of his eyes an intense glow. "Of course. I told her. She didn't care...and her opinion is the one that matters."

Ruby drew her head up sharply. "Not for long." 

The boy grimaced, the trapped look slipping back into his eyes. "Don't, Ruby. There's no point. I have someone else."

"I don't care." The girl drew out the ring, her smile becoming satisfied. "Why don't you run, Jepar? Let's see how far you get."

Jal was amused. Children. How they loved to play their little games. But her eyes darted to the boy. There was a faintly puzzled air to his stance, and she saw his nostrils flare as he sniffed the air.

~ Jal? ~ His voice, fire and sunlight in her head. Pure of the night, this one. Rich in power. She was curious.

~ Perhaps. ~ 

~ You're not Jal. ~ Flat negation. He didn't look at her, but she knew the shapeshifter had seen her. Jal was impressed. She was hard to find; the moon's power cloaked her from the sight of all but the most perceptive. ~ You sound like her...and you smell like her...but you're not. Who are you? ~

~ Nothing to concern you, ~ she told him. ~ Go away, little shapeshifter. ~

~ No chance. ~ Curiosity. It had killed the cat, humans said. Maybe she would kill this one. He was getting annoyingly persistent. ~ What are you? ~

The right question. She had to wonder if this boy was as charming as he appeared. The weak one inside her, the one who feebly tried to fight the hunter's moon, had thought of him as kind. 

~ Why don't you ask Nightfire? ~ 

Silence from him, and then inquisitiveness sharper than ever. ~ That's not an answer. Are you afraid to tell me the truth? ~ 

Below, she saw the girl slip the ring on and the shapeshifter's mind snapped away from her, pulled by the tug of the rich magick Jal felt exuding from the ring. The tainted halo around the girl flared brighter than ever, vivid with her emotion. It hurt Jal's eyes, stabbed like needles into her temple. She could not allow this abomination. 

It hurt, it hurt like the way they had made her, in fire and blood and anguish, and she would only be rid of the pain when the girl was gone. 

She sprang. 

Letting her body slide into her true form, a clawed and snarling beast, she bayed her huntcry, an eerie wail that made the vampire's head snap up. She saw the terror loom large in the girl's eyes.

Jallakri ap Ganra's nightmarish face was the last thing Ruby Luthman ever saw.

****

"Oh hell," Chatoya muttered shakily, rubbing at her blistering hands. She was a foot away from the wards but they threw off enough to heat to burn her even at this distance. 

"Toya?" Cougar's clear voice, thrumming with anger. "What the hell's going on? I just got some first-degree burns here trying to get out. What the hell is this?"

"Dark magick," she called back, eyeing the simmering flames. "Blue. Are you all okay?"

"Fine." From Cougar's voice if he got his hands on Blue, fine wouldn't be a word in anyone's vocabulary. "Jal's done a runner and Cern followed her."

Chatoya froze. Oh gods. No... Cern was a half-breed. And if Jal caught him...

She glared at the flames. Damn the heat, she didn't have time for this!

She strode forwards, slamming her hands onto the fire and blasting her magick through it. She held on as the pain ate away at her, chanting dumbly, I have to break it, I have to break it, I have to!

It gave with a faint hiss, and she stumbled forward. Ria steadied her, her face stunned at the raw mess of Chatoya's hands. 

"I need healing," Chatoya said desperately, looking at the concerned faces of friend and Pack alike. The wolves seemed disorientated, fearful. Only Donna Ares held herself with her usual poise, her dramatic eyes as sharp as a snake's. "And I've got to explain..."

****

"Stop it!" someone was yelling. Hands with surprising strength dragged her from the steaming kill, throwing her away. "Leave her alone!"

She spun, her mouth a mass of cloying scarlet. "Why are you complaining, little shapeshifter? She was no good to you."

The boy's eyes were wide, startled. So deep a green as to be black, and filling fast with thought and plans.

"This is what I am," she declared proudly. "Here is your answer. How do you like it?"

His thoughts rang clear as a bell. "I don't," he said flatly. He looked her straight in the eyes and held her stare. She had never met anyone who had done that. How...odd. "She didn't deserve that."

"She was impure," she said dismissively. "I will not allow such pollution of our races." She paused. "Why aren't you afraid of me?"

Nightfire had been. She remembered Kaajen mal Ifiche when she had awoken, and slaughtered them all. They had made her; they could unmake her easily. She could not suffer them to live. She had never met anyone who wasn't afraid of what she was. 

He shrugged. "You're not the worst thing to come here. Not by a long shot." She saw his thoughts again. He was going to try and stop her.

She moved sleek as a swooping bird and caught him, slamming him back against a tree. One hand wrapped around his throat, leaving the girl's blood on him. Still his calm eyes. "I am not a thing," she said evenly, licking at her lips, tasting the coppery succulence of blood. "I am the hunter, and the hunt has begun."

"No," the boy said mildly. Sunshine in his stare, mingled with the all-pervading gloom of the night. He had faith, she realised, faith in his friends. He truly thought that *they*, such puny, tainted things, could stop her. "You're the prey. You just don't know it yet."

"Wrong," she said sharply.

And snapped his spine. 

She heard the faint creaks of his bones healing even as she dropped him to the ground, smeared with the blood of the vampire. His eyes were still aware, flecked with the first hints of fear. He was learning. And she would teach him the lesson. "It is you who knows nothing."

_ _

She dropped to feed from the vampire, and showed him the true power and beauty of what she was.

Yet, something she didn't understand, from his thoughts came only horror.

**** 

Someone was following her.

She raised her head from the body, her mouth slick with blood, and listened. Far off footsteps, light and sure. But not too sure...a little hurried, a little hesitant. Stumbling often.

It intrigued Jal. She inhaled deeply. The scent of autumn, a subtle musk. And the vague acidity of magick. It tingled in the back of her head and she laughed throatily. The boy. The one whose soul was tied to her.

The impure one.

Oh...this would be fun.

She wavered over where to wait for him. Mmm...the moon lay hidden from her view among these trees. She wanted to drink in its bright, crisp power. The life of this one – she raked her claws across the useless thing – had been satisfying, but it was not enough.. 

It was never enough. The hunter could not be sated.

She stood, and stretched until her limbs ached...then with a series of soft pops, she felt her body collapse back into the leggy sprawl of this mortal whose gold hair was turned russet, whose clothes were ripped and jagged. Even the tough wolf-hide jacket she wore was marred.

She stood lightly, her head turning to feel where the moon's pull was strongest. A swift glance at the blond boy. It would be an hour, maybe more until he was healed. No bother from him

Her senses caught a high place, scant miles form here.

There. It would be there. An empty smile curved her mouth and she began to run. Follow me, she urged the witch-boy. Follow me into hell.

****

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.


	18. Part Eighteen

Nightfire Part Eighteen

Thank you so much to all of you who reviewed! I loved hearing what you thought :-) Thank you: Dwayberry (This is set after Flamechild. Flamechild is the first of the series, Nightfire is the sixth :-) Thanks! I always enjoy writing the characters...they just run away with the plot. ), 

Diomede (I'm a big fan of suspense. I'm impressed you remember all those names, especially when they're so bizarre! I'm trying to get the chaps up regularly, exams are getting in my wicked way :-) Thanks!), 

Me (Hey, my house is bullet-proof! And torture proof...anyways, there's another story after this one (as ever). Thanks!), 

Myst (Hey, rant all you want. I'm trying to break my cliffhanger 'sessiveness. I'm getting there! Cat Stevens, I've heard of him – I'm listening to David Grey at the moment. His 'this year's Love' is **so** nice.), 

Persephone (Can't be nice too long, don't want people to get the wrong idea :-) The upcoming story, Chimera, is about Blue…I'm having a lot of fun writing the various ideas that pop into my head! Thankye!),

Starrika (I think I was having a bad week when I did this chapter – however bad I feel, you can guarantee my characters get it worse :-) One of the perks of writing...there's always someone worse off! Thanks!) and last but infinitely not least, 

Starwisher ( Jal does get it a bit in this story...well, someone has to! ::grins:: I hope you like the next part! Thank you!)

As you can probably guess, comments are adored and worshipped; they are the icing on the cake of writing, so please tell me what you think and make life a bit sweeter! If you want to get ahold of me via email, I'm at [kiananw@hotmail.com][1]

Hope you enjoy,

Ki

Nightfire Part Eighteen

The hunter who had once been Jallakri ap Ganra ran wild under an open sky, slaughter hot in her blood, and she laughed for the joy of it.

Her smile was fierce as the hawk, a being of untamed death. Where she walked, the helpless cried out, and in their voices she felt her solace. Her thoughts flew out to the boy who followed her. So close now...

She bounded up the last of the slopes with a roaring laugh that bounced back from the smooth stone around her, and spun to wait for him, loving the wisps of chill air that brushed her and power burning in her. The moon spilled full on her face, turned her skin to the pale gold of crocuses smoothed over with frost, and her eyes blazed with a fell light.

She liked this place. It was secure. A shallow cave beckoned at her back, and before her lay only the sweeping ground. Nothing could approach without her knowledge.

The boy moved quickly, movements lithe and supple, emerging from the wings of the gloom. His tainted blood made a foul orange light cocoon him. It hurt her eyes to look at him, sent wriggles of slow pain through her head. His eyes swung up, widening fractionally. A few steps, swift and sure, and he faced her.

The mahogany hair was disarrayed, and the violet shadows of his eyes confused. She saw his wrongness in them, the gentleness of witchblood, mixed with the shapshifter's agile ease and the vampire's careless grace. It made her teeth tingle to tear it from him.

She grinned at him slowly. "Welcome."

To your death.

**** 

Chatoya, Cougar and Donna Ares were picking their way through the woods carefully. They had left everyone else in the clearing, as the three most capable of dealing with Jal if they met up with her. Chatoya glanced at Cougar. His eyes were golden in the dark, two tiny flames that threw feeble light on his captivating face.

"Hold it." The husky voice belonged to Donna. She had stopped, stooping low to the ground, her nose quivering. Alone of the Pack, she hadn't been terrified by Jal. "They came this way. Both of 'em."

Chatoya couldn't smell anything, but she trusted to the werewolf's honed senses. "Which way?"

Donna stood, brushing the dirt from her chic clothes. Surprisingly for someone so wild, her clothes were always perfectly cut and made an utter contrast with her tangle of russet hair and grimy hands. "Dead ahead. There's blood there too."

"Lots of it," Cougar added darkly. He grimaced, and Chatoya saw the two thin triangles of white indenting his scornful mouth. "It's making me hungry."

"Don't even think about sinking your fangs into *me*, Dracula throwback," the werewolf leader snapped at once. Chatoya sighed and followed after Cougar, making sure she separated the two of them. "We got enough problems without you getting the munchies."

It was stiflingly warm, even in the depths of evening. Above, the moon was a dire reminder of what had happened. 

Ahead of her, Cougar stopped. Chatoya cannoned into him and to her surprise, he didn't say a word.

"Oh hell." His tones hopeless, almost baffled. "Oh god. Please..." She tried to move past and was startled when the vampire swung back to her, shaking his head. He actually caught hold of her. Chatoya was startled – Cougar wasn't one for tactile contact, and she could count the number of times on one hand when she had heard that despairing ring to his voice."You don't want to see this, Toya."

Donna slunk past, and she too drew in a sharp breath, and when she turned back, for once no mockery on her face. She looked younger, softer...exhausted. Her emerald eyes were closed, one fist clenched.

Chatoya looked at her vampire friend. "I don't want to see it," she told him calmly, trying to bury deep the trepidation rising in her. "But I have to. You know that."

A pause, and he nodded and let her by.

She stopped breathing.

Bloodbath. That was what this was, in the truest sense of the word. Around her, the world seemed to stop as she walked forward, her legs trembling between each step and her stomach watery. She knew that face...that pretty, open face that had too often been bitter and hurt. Below the face...someone's meal.

She drew a breath and the world flooded back in on her. Cougar by her, staring down solemnly. "It looks like something Hannibal Lecter would do," the lamia commented glumly.

"Should we hunt down Anthony Hopkins then?" she murmured. It didn't seem real. It couldn't be real. Things like this didn't happen to them, not anymore.

"Yeah, 'cause that film was murder...but after we hunt down Jal." The graveyard humour was a way to keep away the reality. He had made Ruby and once, they had been close. She knew it had to hurt him. 

She wished she felt more upset. But she had barely known Ruby. Only known her hatred, her resentment, her anger. She had never shared anything, never joined in the girl-talk, never joined a conversation with anything other than antagonism or sarcasm. Known her for a year, and not known her at all.

Donna Ares, dragging her finger through a pool of liquid and holding it up to the light. "Blood."

"Gee, how did you work that one out?" Cougar drawled shakily. Chatoya put a hand on his arm, willing him to be calm. "I need a cigarette. Hell...I need about five packs."

She could look at it objectively now. That helped. All right...Ruby Luthman was dead. That was one thing to be thankful for; she wasn't alive after that. Something had...gnawed on her. Not something. Jal. Why, though? Ruby was a made vampire. Nothing impure about that—

But there was. Made vampires couldn't have children. The knowledge was Blue Malefici's, stolen from his mind, and for once she welcome the invasion of the cold memory. It made it easier to deal with when emotions didn't get in the way. 

Jal was...programmed to kill any half-breeds – and any creature that had no use. That could not add to the glory of the Nightworld. Made vampires were...blights. Parasites. Easily made, hard to destroy.

Thinking about the number of made vampires in Ryars Valley made her head hurt.

"Hey. Witch girl." Donna again. She had stopped by a dark mass, a mass that was disturbingly body-shaped and to Chatoya's surprise, appeared to be dripping blood onto him. No. Giving blood. The way Cougar had for her. "This sweetheart belongs to your lot, I think."

She almost jumped when Jepar sat bolt upright suddenly, his green eyes wide. "She snapped my neck!" he said incredulously.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded, worry mixing with relief. He was okay...but he was here. With Ruby. 

He shook his head. "Later. Jal...she..." He gestured to what remained of Ruby. "I tried to stop her." He sighed deeply and raked his hands through his hair. He didn't seem shocked but then, he was Nightworld. He had grown up with sights like this. This time, it wasn't anyone close to him getting hurt. "Gods, I don't think even Ruby deserved that."

I don't think. The cool glint in his eyes said that something had happened with Ruby. Something he didn't like. 

He stood, smeared with blood that wasn't his and rubbing at his neck with a faint frown. "Thanks Donna. I needed that. It would have taken another few minutes to heal."

"No big deal," the wolf-woman said, peering up through her lazy spirals of hair. "But this Jal girl is. Can't we stop her?"

Chatoya shook her head firmly. This one at least, she could answer. "Not us. There's only one way to stop her now."

"Typical," Cougar muttered. His fangs were glinting; the blood in the air was thick and heavy, and she knew it was an instinct he couldn't help. "And I bet it's fiendishly difficult and dangerous."

Jepar cocked his head, the emerald eyes narrowing. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but she was asleep before, wasn't she? Can't we just do that again?"

"Oh, you're going to *love* this one," Chatoya said grimly. Blue's knowledge was in her veins now, and he knew rather a lot about Jallakri ap Ganra. "Not now she's found Cern. The soulmate bond surpasses the spell. It would wake her every time."

"Why the bloody hell didn't they think of that?" Cougar's scowl would have slain lions at fifty paces. But she didn't let it faze her. 

Donna Ares snorted. "Easy one, Dracula. What didn't the Nightworld believe in until it smacked them in the face?"

The lamia groaned. "Soulmates. Damn. So it's death or nothing?" His mouth curled. "So is there *any* chance of us grabbing some popcorn and watching *someone else* risk their life try to save us all from certain peril? At all?"

Yes to the first, no, no. Simply. They saw the answer on her face. Cougar turned away with a curse. The werewolf pursed her dark lips, clearly lost in thought. 

"Can't Cern...?" Jepar began, a faint hope shining in his face, one that was cut off as she had to shake her head and shatter that optimism. 

"No. He's half-bred," she explained grimly. "Jal would...butcher him." She blinked, realising that they were standing around *talking* while he was hunting down Jal. Deep inside, she knew they couldn't have caught him, but there was no point wasting time here. "Guys, we have to go find him. Jep, can you stay here? Cougar, go back and find the others. Lisa's made – Jal might go after her. Donna and I'll find Jal. We're both pureblood – we should be okay."

As Cougar disappeared back into the night, the werewolf and the witch followed the trail.

****

"Jal?" he said uncertainly. Something was wrong, Every sense screamed that at him, screamed with instinct and ancient knowledge. He was not the hunter here...he might even be the prey.

She held out a languid hand, her smile warm and sensuous. This was not the shy girl he had seen before. Every movement now was honed, aware. She knew exactly how to tilt her head so her long throat glowed in the moonlight, how to purr in a soft voice.

Take it, Cern told himself. Touch her and know. He reached out cautiously, praying that he was wrong and that it would just be the same appealing innocence. 

It was molten lava that seared through his head, bringing with it the overpowering stench of death and clammy feel of cooling blood. In his head, her voice bayed endlessly at the moon, howling out her power and need.

He knew what she was. He knew what she killed.

He jerked back, stunned. "You're not Jal," he whispered, as Jepar has said before him. But where Jepar had had only curiosity, in Cern's mellow voice was fear.

"You have no comprehension of what I am."

She stood and stared at him, that flaring gold hair spilling smoothly down her back like a living cloak. It swung to mid-calf, eye-catching now she had let it down, glittering in the silvery light. She was nothing human; not anymore. Her eyes, that icy pale green, were pitiless and filled with a hard desire.

"Evil," he said softly. It hurt his throat to force the words out, but he knew. He knew now and it couldn't be hidden. "Nothing but evil."

"Humans have always labelled what they cannot understand as evil." That throaty, rich voice was not Jal's; there was no hesitancy or wonder in it. Only dry bitterness, one who had seen it all and valued none of it.

"I'm not human."

"Humanity is not a matter of race." She slunk closer and every movement suggested sensuality, suggested burning wants and most of all, dark promise. "It is a quality."

He shrugged and had to force himself not to step back. To run would only entice her. He could taste her aura, his senses flicking out and it was dreadful. It had no colour, but was more like a choking toxic smoke that tried to reach out and draw him in. "It doesn't stop you being evil."

She laughed and it was a full, deep sound. Her mouth was half-parted, and he could see the odd depth of colour to it; the shimmering scarlet of someone else's life. So beautiful in that moment, powerful and terrifying, some dark goddess.

"You see the truth." She was close enough now to caress his face, let her hands run through his hair, curl around his neck, distracting him with, he admitted grimly, a great deal of success. His hands stayed at his sides only with immense self-control he hadn't known he had. "Can you fight it?"

I'm no fighter, he thought. Her eyes were filling with something older and darker, something that rose to the surface from where it had lain silent and waiting. Then she buried her head in his neck, and she smelled of the wild outside, rich and exotic as a desert flower. 

And he felt it subtly, the change from woman to beast. Her hands shifting slightly to the back of his neck, the small of his back. The contact that was no longer affectionate, but purposeful. He swallowed hard and heard her sigh. It was unbelievably frightening.

He sent a nudge, a tiny thread of magick at her, felt her leap back as if burned and he stepped away, breathing hard and not caring if she knew how much she was affecting him. "No," he said softly. "I can't fight it. But I can deny it."

"The thing is," she said with a dry little laugh, "you'd love to believe that this isn't your soulmate, your sweet other half. But the truth is that magick can't work on the unwilling. Some part of your lady wanted this. Some part of her loves it, needs it. Because the truth is this; underneath all of us, there's a beast that has been waiting to smell the blood and live the hunt."

"Bullshit."

She chuckled and reached out for him again, her touch burning. "Wrong. This is my beast, Cern. This is my truth." Her eyes hardened suddenly, and flashed an eldritch red. "And here's yours. You cannot live."

If only he had had his magic, perhaps it would have been all right. But the Elders had banned him; they had put spells on him to stop him reaching the core of purple fire that burned inside him. 

He had nothing to fight with.

She pounced. 

****

She felt the air so cool on her as she moved, flowing along her body like silk, felt his skin open under her claws like paper tearing.

The power was phenomenal.

The hunter felt as though the moon plummeted from the sky and exploded in her heart, striking in a wave of hot white lightning, lighting up every pore and sense as though she was a thing made of diamonds. She screamed with the intensity, screamed her thrill to the heavens, ached to feel the first sting of blood.

He was fighting her dimly, struggling to reach her. She ignored his pleading voice, dipping her head to lap at his blood. Oh, by the burning moon, it was pure power. Pure sorcery.

Then she felt his mind reaching in hers and shocked, the hunter tried to bat him away. 

But it was too late. He was within.

She blinked, and she was in the temple, ringed by black marble and simmering torches. She was gold within jet, beauty within darkness. The hunter in the night. Shimmering with power, she stepped down gracefully. Around her swung seven figures, hanging from ropes that were made with the simple creativity of the hunter. And the hunter thought only in flesh and blood.

Those who had made her; six ringing the altar, swinging gently,and one above it. That one with the dark hair and dimmed gold eyes of Kaajen mal Ifiche. Vampire. Creator. Sacrifice.

He was nothing compared with her. Nothing. 

Just like this witch boy, with the foolish belief in his eyes and innocence seared on every line of his face. And he stood before her like he was an *equal*. Fool. She would destroy him.

~ No...I won't let you win this one, ~ he said grimly. Determination strong in his voice and desperate hurt too. He loved her, she realised, and he pitied what she had become.

~ You *dare* pity me? ~ she shrieked enraged.

He strode forward and took hold of her shoulders. And to her immense outrage, he shook her. ~ I dare. ~

. ~ I will destroy you. ~ The hunter wrenched herself free, her face contorting furiously

His smile was heartbreakingly sweet. ~ I will find you. ~

Before she even knew what he had done, she saw him glance to the ceiling where the moonlight poured through so thickly. And he put his hands together, as if to pray...and heard him murmur words she didn't understand.

Words she knew were a spell.

But he had no magic. And as she felt a tremendous tug on her mind, she realised he was using her own power to entrap her.

~ No! ~ she cried angrily, and flew across to tug at his hands, to try to stop him saying the words that pulled her power from her, inch by inch. But she, the hunter of the moon, could not defeat the simple words of one halfbreed.

~ Let go! ~ she raged, meeting the velvet depths of his eyes. She felt the power surging in him. ~ Stop it! ~

His eyes met hers, and in them, the summer still flourished though she had tried to tear it from him. Unnatural, unwanted...unstoppable.

~ Yes. ~

Suddenly his grasp broke apart and from it exploded a burning light that ripped through her and tore her away from herself. She felt herself melt under the heat of that light, flung back into the depths where she had smouldered and waited so long...

The last thing she saw was the sadness on his face, this boy who had nothing and with that had defeated her. Their minds peeled away from one another, and she felt the weakness in him, for an instant saw him sprawled limply upon the dark ground.

I will wait again, she swore furiously, as she felt that other weak creature surface. Tumbling now, back into the patient shadows of the soul.

After all – he will not be there to stop me.

I can wait. The hunt continues and one day, the hunter shall rejoin it.

****

The world crashed in on her like a thunderstorm. Jal moaned faintly, and put a hand to her pounding head. Dear gods, what a strange dream...night, and slaughter, and the deep sweet flavour of blood...

No dream.

She sat bolt upright, to find her hands sticky with things she couldn't bear to think about, with her body aching in strange places. She looked up and the moon filled her vision like a sickly eye, looming down towards her until she felt as though she would vomit right there.

She turned away with a gasp, and pushed herself to her feet. She was freezing, filled with an awful limp shakiness as though she had run for her life. And there was an odd taste in her mouth. A coppery, succulent taste. She spat, trying to get rid of it, all the while struggling to recall what had happened.

The hunter had come back.

She remembered now, clear as crystal. Time seemed to spin out inside her head.

"Zade!" A woman screamed for her child, a sweet-faced blond thing, while Jal tore him into pieces despite the woman's frantic fighting. She had been an assassin, she recalled now, called Elise Seille whose crime had been to marry a coyote shapeshifter. Jal had killed that child, and killed their hopes with him.

The dead, dull acceptance in the eyes of a witch-wolf as Jal held her by the throat and crushed the breath from her, and then buried her in molten silver. 

The fierce grin on the face of the human-dragon who had fought her for three nights and three days. Until he was but dust, and she was triumphant.

Dozens of memories, all the same brutal horror. 

She was a killer. An evil thing. And she could never weep enough tears to atone for what she had done.

Slowly the memory of the night filtered in on her. Of leaping from that circle, while Bane Malefici tried so hard to capture her with old magick. Ruby Luthman...no...she hadn't but yes, she knew she had. The cool voice of Jepar...and the neat crunch of his spine.

And someone chasing her, catching her, pushing the hunter back to the dark where she belonged—

Jal froze.

And slowly, oh so slowly, she turned back to look at the body that was heaped in the shallow niche of the cave.

Details struck her gradually, like glints from a stained glass window.

The disarrayed waves of the mahogany hair.

The parted lips of that wide mouth, no longer curved in a smile.

The broken, lifeless body.

The pool of blood.

The violet eyes, the summer snatched from them.

Jal screamed and screamed and the sound echoed back at her from the sky. There was only her, only him, alone on the summit. And above them, the clouds floated by like nothing mattered. Like nothing was wrong. As if her soulmate wasn't lying there, broken in his own blood.

She ran from what she had done.

****

Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear your thoughts on this :-)

   [1]: mailto:kiananw@hotmail.com



	19. Part Nineteen

Nightfire Part Nineteen

Thank you to all of you who reviewed J I adored hearing what you thought! Thank you: Dwayberry (Well…I had a good reason...thanks!), Dead Flower (There are three chapters left, plus an epilogue. Last part was pretty chaotic!), Persephone (Well…I can be mean. It happens when I have bad days. Everyone else suffers too :-) Thanks!) and last but infinitely not least, Starrika (Well, it's almost done J I like cliffahngers…but there aren't many more to go!)

Your thoughts, comments, opinions would be adored; feedback is the icing on the delicious cake of icing, and just about as tasty so please, tell me what you think – I love to know!

Nightfire Part Nineteen

"This way, witch," Donna said gruffly. They were climbing up the gentle slopes of the valley's mountains. "Our hunter's a smart cookie. Good vantage point here. No way anyone could sneak up on you."

"Why are you helping?" Chatoya managed, concentrating on her footing. She already had scraped knees and elbows from stepping on scree that had slid from under her feet. "Shouldn't you be with your Pack?"

"'Because of his age and his cunning, because of his gripe and his paw, in all that the Law leaveth open, the word of the Head Wolf is Law,'" the redhead cited.

Chatoya frowned, sweeping tangles of raven hair from her eyes. "Why are you quoting Kipling?"

Donna's gravely voice was low in the darkness. "Honey, Kipling was a werewolf. He knew what he was talking about. That girl broke Pack law – we don't kill for the pleasure of it. We kill to survive." 

"What about all those people who fall into your pit?" she demanded, recalling the horror stories.

Donna laughed. "Name one."

She was caught out. "I...you can't tell me no one's fallen in there!"

"I can." The werewolf's eyes flashed green, throwing enough for light for Chatoya to see the mischievous smile on her face. "It's all just rumour. No one's ever got that deep into the Ghost Roads. 'Cept you, and your circle. That girl was the first – and we offered her a fair trial. But I'm done playing fair."

A step up, and the wolf stood on a plateau...and was frozen stock still. "Luna bright, our girl's thorough."

Chatoya felt her heart plummet. "Cern?"

"What's left of him."

She pulled herself onto the plateau. He was there, lying unmoving in the shallow shelter of a cave. Hurrying forward, praying, she knelt down by him, laying her fingers on his neck. 

Silence and stillness, her muscles feeling strung tight and quivering. Then...a faint beat.

"He's got a pulse." She grinned radiantly, relief surging through her. He would be okay. "I can heal him."

"Better get to work, witch," the werewolf said, moving to stand guard at the edge of the cliff. "He looks a mess to me."

He was a mess. But she could handle this. She'd seen worse. Chatoya put her hands to his temples, and determined, began to heal him. 

****

Jal ran blindly, sobs catching in her throat. She half-fell down the slope, rocks catching at her skin and tearing it, but she didn't care. She scrambled to her feet and carried on running. If she ran far enough, fast enough, she could leave the world behind.

She was running towards a stretch of inky water, drowning deep...but she was already engulfed by guilt and sorrow

She had to stop sometime.

The lake drew nearer and nearer, until finally she could see the ripples on the water, only feet away and had to slow, gasping for breath and for peace. She had run miles, and it wasn't nearly far enough. 

She stood and watched it, no longer feeling the tears on her face. There was a numbness creeping through her, as over and over again, she saw Cern. She saw herself as she truly was. She saw everything she had been too stupid and too scared and too blind to see. 

And worse, she could feel the hunter deep inside her, waiting to rise again, Striving, struggling. But she fought it. What she had done...she fought it with that. Her horror was far greater than its lust could ever be.

"There's no use crying over spilt blood." The voice was deliciously dark, hypnotic almost, and she wasn't surprised that she hadn't heard his footsteps behind her, too wrapped up in her own misery.

She remembered what the final vision had said to her. The sweet-eyed boy, the one who had professed to love her. ~ Find the one who can help you...they are part of you, and you will know them. ~

She had thought it was Cern – it was he she had revealed everything to. But that had been wrong.

She met Blue Malefici's cold, snake-serene gaze. A part of her...yes, he was. Her blood ran in his veins. He was her descendant. And only he could help now.

"What do I do?" she said flatly, hopelessly. Every moment was a draining battle with the other part of her.

"You already know," he said calmly. "You should never have existed. Evil like you has no place here."

"And you do?" she whispered softly.

"Whatever I am, this is my time and my world," he said coolly. "I belong. You...your lifespan ended centuries ago. You've been dead a long time, ancestress. You just didn't realise."

"I breathe, I feel, I hurt!" she said angrily. "How can you say I'm dead?"

His hooded cobalt eyes snapped with a flicker of emotion. "You were dead the moment you summoned Nightfire. It has changed with the times but you have not, and anything which cannot change cannot live."

"I've changed!" she said desperately.

He reached out, and lifted up her chin so she had no choice to look at him, his grip hard and painful. He didn't care that he hurt her. "Tell me that you can control the hunter, Jallakri. Tell me that with one taste of blood, you won't kill. Tell me, but it will be a lie."

She saw her own death writ on his stark, cold face, saw the truth. As long as the hunter lived, there was no hope. Such dark magick could not be fought...she held it back now, but every moment, the hunter fought more fiercely and Jal's hold slipped a little more.

The scornful curl of his mouth acknowledging her fear. "For it to die...you must die."

She wrenched away, her eyes fearful and furious. "No!" she cried . "There must be another way!"

Blue simply watched her. "There isn't."

"I'll find one!" she snarled.

A small, cold smile. "Ancestress, let your head rule your heart for once." He moved past her, to stare down at the swishing water. "It is a simple ritual. It will not take long. You will be free. The hunter has won for ten thousand years – do you honestly think you can banish it forever? Or is it that halfbreed witch of yours that makes you so blind?"

She felt her breath catch, and her heart with it. 

"Ah. It is." He didn't look away from the water, where a wavering mockery of the moon lay trapped. "True love may conquer all in fairytales, but the chances of it happening in real life are about the same as me dressing in drag and dancing a samba. And let me point out that I don't even know the steps."

Jal stared at him. He thought this was *funny*. Her pain amused him. She opened her mouth to shout at him, but then he looked up, and his stare bit into her with the fierce strength of a lion, bold and infinite.

"In real life, death is the only one who ever wins."

"No," she said flatly. She couldn't leave this. She couldn't leave *him*. 

A shrug, and he crouched to pick up a stone and skim it across the water effortlessly. It bounced with tiny splashes, sending ripples across the water. And where those ripples met, waves formed.

"Stop denying it, ancestress. It's a hard truth, and maybe it's a cruel one for you, but you are a killer. Don't pretend that hunter is a different person. You said it yourself – spells can't work on the unwilling."

She froze. He had been there. On the mountain, as she said those words to Cern Akafren. He had watched her attack him, he had watched and he had done *nothing*. "You were there?"

"Like death and taxes, I get everywhere," he agreed dryly.

Jal could barely speak for her fury. "You could have saved him!"

"I could have," he concurred. "But I have your blood in me, ancestress. I am a vampire with wolf blood. Considering what you did to your other half, I don't even want to think about your family rates."

"Don't joke about this!" she screamed.

"Why not?" He shrugged. "Oh, run away, Jallakri." His voice was bored, contemptuous. "Go and pretend to search for ways to save yourself. And when the hunter is roaring in you, when you can't control it any longer, when dozens more are dead, if you can, come crawling back. Maybe I'll help you then."

She stared for a moment, heaving breaths as she was caught between anguish and rage. Then she turned and ran from him again, ran from the boy who was her only deliverance and her only doom.

****

Lisa Ochai paced the Pack clearing endlessly, a rare hardness in her face. Cern had gone after her, he had *gone after her*, the mad, stupid fool. She stopped clenched her fists under her nails were cutting into her palms. It didn't help, that tight knot was still lodged in her stomach like a rock, the fear was building and building until she couldn't bear it anymore.

"Lise?" Ria, all soft voice and shyness, looking at her. "Are you okay?"

"Worried," she bit out. Any god who existed, let him live, even let Jal live, if only he would be all right. 

"Me too." The girl was nestled among the wolves, who were surprisingly subdued. One had its head on her lap, a little scrap of a pup with liquid eyes. "I hope..."

I don't, Lisa thought. I gave up on hope a long time ago. What has hope ever brought me but disappointment? I don't hope. I *act*.

~ Lisa? Ria? ~ The strong voice was Cougar Redfern's. He was moving, Lisa realised, no, running. Jepar dashed on ahead in cheetah form. ~ Toya and Donna Ares have found Cern. They say it...isn't good. She's healing, but we need both of you. Leave the Pack, Jal's gone. I can't sense her nearby. ~

~ What's wrong with him? ~ she forced out. She didn't see Ria glance quickly at her.

A pause; Cougar must be talking to Donna at the same time. Chatoya couldn't telepath that far. ~ What's not. Let's just say that right now, you could scrape him up, put him in a jar and serve him as a tasty side-dish. ~

I'm going to throw up, Lisa thought. She swallowed hard. Not now. They need you. *He* needs you.

~ We're on our way, ~ Ria sent worriedly. ~ Be careful. ~

~ You too, babe. ~ And an aside only Ria could hear. ~ Lisa okay? She sounded...wrong. ~ 

The witch looked over. The vampire seemed to be collecting herself, taking deep breaths and calming. ~ She will be. ~

~ Oh...babe? ~

~ Yeah? ~ There was something tumultuous and dark in his mind, like an avalanche at midnight. 

~ Ruby's dead. ~ She gasped...she and Ruby weren't friends, no, but the vampire had saved her life once. ~ JJ and I buried her. Jal...ripped her apart. ~

She had no words to answer him.

****

Blue stayed to watch the sunrise, settling himself on the cool grass as morning crept in cold and fresh while he let his thoughts fly free around the valley. 

His dragon powers flicked out inquisitively, almost idly, skipping into any creature he could sense nearby, borrowing their senses to garner information. The pinpoint vision of a hawk, swooping low over the mountains showed him the ones who called themselves Circle Strange carrying the witch-boy back, unconscious. All pale, all drained. Some angry, some distraught, some grim.

Only one aware of what had to happen. Chatoya Irkil, with her mourning black hair and her astute face, even now searching for him with the remnants of her magick. She saw the hawk, and wondered, but Blue carelessly forced the bird to wheel away with a screech.

The striking face of that boy who lounged by the lake didn't change. Still calm, still confident. Still without compassion gracing his eyes or anything but a cold cruelty.

He would be avenged for the heedless way she had destroyed his plans. Three times he had warned, and not once had she listened. And well...she was so easy to toy with. So fierce, so eager, believing that she could really get the better of him if she tried. So much more interesting than the first time he had met her.

Destroying her would be...fun.

By the time full light hit the earth, throwing everything into sharp relief, he was gone.

****

Lisa Ochai was sitting in Jepar's house, watching Cern Akafren sleep. A book sat open in her lap, a half-empty glass on the table, but she never glanced down at the pages or sipped the drink. Her eyes were strained and unhappy, the first hints of anger in the whiteness of her knuckles. 

Damn Jal. How could she have hurt him? How? If she caught hold of that werewolf...Lisa wanted to wrench her limb from limb, only that might hurt Cern. So she wouldn't.

Chatoya and Ria were asleep downstairs, drained of every last drop of energy. Jepar had curled up in front of the fire, equally sapped after lending his power to the witches – and all, she knew, was not well with him, but that didn't seem to matter to her much right now. Jepar was strong. He'd get over it.

"You okay here?" Cougar said softly, putting his head round the door. "Ria told me he should wake up any time now. They did some...pretty illegal spells to try and heal him."

She looked at the lamia, It too ka moment for his words to register. "Yeah. Fine. Where are you off to?"

"Going to talk to the Pack." The lamia's eyes were no longer gold but the creamy hazel they always melted into when he was upset or hurt. "Explain about what happened. I figure we owe them that. Lise...are you sure you're okay? You look like you're going to..." Burst into tears, he'd been going to say, but trailed off as he realised that was decidedly untactful. A rare event with Cougar.

"Hon, I'm *fine*," she said empathically, and managed to paste a smile onto her face. There. See, now go away.

He gave her a look that said he knew better, but wouldn't argue, and left like a cat sliding out of a window.

She didn't know how long it was before he woke. She simply watched his pale face, the face she knew so well and loved so well, and had never told her love to. She couldn't believe how it had been when Chatoya had told her he was hurt. 

Numbness, then pure terror, then nausea and a dull horror that pounded in her. She was powerless; she could only watch while the witches healed, and maybe if she'd believed in a god, she would have prayed.

"Lise?" 

His voice made her blink and stand, striding over at once. Just looking at him sent the usual bittersweet feeling through her veins. 

"How are you?" she said anxiously, trying to sound bright and cheerful. Cern opened his eyes a little and hissed softly – the intensity of the light, she guessed. She flicked off the lamp.

"Well," he drawled. She heard the faint ring of sadness in his voice, but ignored it as he did. "I feel like someone put me in a sack and hit me repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Let's see..." His eyes closed for an instant. Cern was an expert healer. "Cracked ribs, broken leg, sprained ankle, snapped wrist, left arm broken in three places, a lot of cuts and bruises. How close am I?"

She smiled slightly. "You missed a broken finger and no cuts anymore. And your arm's broken in four places, not three. Sorry, that's a B-Plus. But if you'd broken anything else, you could have won world's biggest human percussion instrument."

That wry smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. "Damn, another lifetime goal missed." He moved uneasily and swore under his breath, face paling abruptly. Lisa didn't think she was supposed to hear. "What have Toya and Ria been doing? Because it sure doesn't feel like healing."

"Oh?" she said archly. Joy filled her. He was awake, he was all right, he would live. She made up her mind to buy Toya and Ria a *huge* bar of chocolate.

Cern glared at her and she relented, not wanting to see even muted anger directed at her. "Honey, they said the best person to be healing you *was* you. But if it's any consolation, they fixed your other broken leg, put your shoulder back in its socket, fixed up your spine and head and stopped you bleeding to death."

"Oh well, maybe I'll forgive them." Again, that flicker of sadness, in his eyes as well as his voice. "Couldn't borrow a little of that vampire blood, could I?" Hopeful look, eyes wide and imploring. "I can't keep this puppy-dog look up forever, you know," he added when she didn't answer.

"Sure," she said finally, uneasily. She didn't like sharing blood – it let someone see your thoughts. But she had learned over the years to guard herself from such intrusions. It should be safe enough.

She emptied the water from her glass onto the floor, and broke it on the table. Slight surprise on his face at that, but Lisa didn't care. She wanted this over and done with. Slashing her wrist open with a fragment didn't hurt much, and she didn't need to open any cuts on him (she knew he preferred that method to drinking blood. There might be a touch of vampire blood in his veins, but he didn't acknowledge it.). There were enough to choose from.

The pull at her mind was unnerving, a sudden jolt of energy that made her slam up her shields more firmly, and resolve not to think about him at all. 

~ Lise? ~ his voice, distant, confused. ~ Why are you shielding? ~

She didn't answer, but kept her face smooth and empty. 

His unhappiness was a dash of saltwater in her face. ~ Please, Lise, I need to talk to you. I have to talk to someone... ~

She bit her lip. ~ I need to concentrate. ~

~ No you don't, ~ he said, anger and misery all mixed up together. ~ Why are you shutting me out? I have to tell someone about how I feel or I think I'll go crazy, completely mad. ~

~ Tell someone else, ~ she muttered through her shields. 

~What's wrong with you? ~ he snapped.

She realised a fraction too late that he had gotten much more powerful since the last time she had linked minds with him, nearly three years ago when they had first met. 

He punched through her shields like they didn't even exist. And he saw.

And he *knew*.

She broke the connection with a jolt. Her stomach was leaping as though an entire flock of crows had gotten loose. She felt as though she had been run into a corner. Trapped. That was it. It wasn't a feeling she often experienced. And humiliated too. If a chasm had opened in the floor, she would have been the first to leap into it.

Cern sat up, his body already healed. Far too close for comfort, though comfort certainly wasn't what she needed right now. A time machine maybe, to snatch back those few moments. He looked…stunned, that was the only way she could think of to describe it, all his anger disappeared. Eyes gone the colour of indigo nights with sheer shock, mouth half-open. 

"Oh my god," he said quietly. There was a dazed incredulity on his face. "You're in love with me?"

She looked at him, her lips trembling. "Yes."

****

I would love to know what you think – please just take a minutes to write a review and tell me what you think. :-)

Hugs n' honey,

Ki


	20. Part Twenty

Nightfire Part Twnety

Nightfire Part Twenty

Cougar Redfern was just discussing strategy with the Pack when the urgent mental shout, amplified by the power of someone very ancient smashed into his head and nearly deafened him.

~ REDFERN! ~

~ Hell, Zara, ~ he snapped back, clutching at his pounding head. ~ I'm not deaf. ~

He felt the tiny vampire's agitation like it was his own. When had she gotten so powerful? The answer came almost at once.

~ But you are in a good deal of danger, ~ the calm voice of Darkstar cut in. Ah. That was where the power was coming from. Cougar had the feeling that guy was up near his little half-brother's league. ~ We've found out what Jallakri is. ~

~ An evil half-breed killing machine? ~ he offered silkily. ~ We know. ~

Silence. Then Zara said weakly, ~ oh no. ~ He could sense they were somewhere between Vegas and the valley, standing at a gas station with Zara pacing through the sandy dust. ~ You know how to stop her? ~

~ Yes, we're just letting her run loose because it's an interesting social experiment. ~ 

~ Sometimes, ~ Darkstar put in, a slight edge to his voice, ~ you sound exactly like your younger brother, who I've had the extreme displeasure of meeting. ~ Cougar could sense the power there, like an avalanche just waiting to roll. I hope this guy doesn't ever get mad at me, he thought.

~ How do you stop her? ~

~ There's a set of spells, ~ the older vampire informed him. ~ Nightfire knows them. The rest of us are clueless...but you want to stop Jallakri, find Nightfire. ~

Cougar gritted his teeth. No way. Over his dead body, and hopefully over Blue's first. ~ Thanks. ~

****

Lisa couldn't answer. She didn't know how. All she knew was that she had just wrecked a perfectly good friendship. She just looked at her hands. This was why she had never said anything. 

She felt tears spring to her eyes and blinked them back angrily. This was so stupid! She hadn't ever meant for him to know, because Lisa knew Cern well enough to know what he would say, how he would act. She had thought he'd laugh it off or be furious. But he was doing neither of those things.

"Hey..." His fingers tipped her face up, his touch gentle. She met his eyes reluctantly. "This is me, Lise. We've been friends a long time. I think I deserve an honest answer at least." 

"But that's the point," she said wretchedly. "We're friends. That's not going to happen now."

He was searching her eyes, his olive skin pale underneath, and it felt like he was stripping her soul bare. "Gods...Lise...you really are in love with me, aren't you?"

Yes, she felt like screaming. Yes, yes, yes, and why is the world so unfair? But she jerked her head away, because it hurt to be this close and said miserably, "Yes."

His silky lips parted on a surprised breath. She couldn't look away, but it was breaking her in two to see the changes on his face. "How...how long?"

She shrugged. "Three years. Give or take." Give me peace, take my heart.

He shut his eyes, locking the violet depths away from her, and she already knew what he would say. "Lise...I can't deal with this. I don't know what to say or do, because it's not...that's not..."

She finished for him. "It's not how you feel." She smiled, even though the dull pain in her was beating away at her, killing her softly, because that was what he was expect. "I understand."

She could see pity in his eyes. That stung.

Pity, and perhaps a drop of regret. "If there wasn't Jal," he began and trailed off, shaking his head.

Well, we all need our own precious homicidal maniacs, she felt like saying, but didn't. 

She had changed everything. And now this uncomfortable silence hung, like a shroud on the scarps of their friendship. She hated herself for it. She hated Jal, for existing. 

"Look," she muttered, keeping her low voice strong, "it doesn't matter." Liar, liar. "You need to sleep."

"I need to find Jal," he said grimly, then bit his lip as he realised how tactless that was. Lisa struggled with the lump forming in her throat because damn him, she wouldn't cry over this. She should have learned to handle disappointment by now. When had she seen anything but it?

"You can't," she said gently. "You're healed, but you're still weak, hon. Look, even Toya and Jepar have the sense to sleep of the worst of the injuries."

"Sleep?" He sat up, and swung his feet off the bed to stand, and hissed in sheer rage as his legs gave under him and he collapsed. She could tell from his unfocused eyes and faint quivering that he was weaker than a newborn kitten. "I need your blood," he said desperately, imploring. "I have to find her..." 

"You need to sleep," Lisa Ochai said. She wouldn't give way. However sweetly he looked at her, however it hurt. "Listen to me. Jal can take care of herself...whoever she is."

"No she can't," he insisted.

She reached out her mind, easy, so easy, and just as he had broken through her mental shields, punched through his and reached the part of his mind that was bleak and exhausted. In this state, he was closer to the shapeshifter side of him, the part that was simple animal reflex. 

She could sense his emotions; betrayal, pain, the crimson instinct of the hunt, and even now, the knowledge he was hurt, the desire to curl up quietly and wait to live or die. 

He yawned, then looked alarmed. "Don't do this," he said softly, but his mellow voice was already slurring with sleep, deepening. "Lise..."

She fixed him with a stare. "Could you help her now?" she demanded, angry with him for being so blind. 

A silence, then finally he smiled ruefully, painfully. It was something he always did. When times got hard, he still smiled, because he had once told her, it was smile or cry. "No."

"Then sleep," she pressed, "sleep and heal."

"Hey Lise," he said sleepily. Then said something so softly even her fine-tuned hearing couldn't catch it. Through their mind-link, she could feel him struggling to form the words against the drowsy tide of fatigue.

"What?" 

He repeated it, voice even quieter, sounding more like leaves rustling than a voice. Lisa leaned closer, until she was bare centimetres away. Again he said whatever it was. Lisa sighed. "I can't hear you," she said dryly, looking down at him. Cern's eyes were drowsy, but the starts of a weary grin tugged at his mouth.

"Just my luck, huh?" he said tiredly. "Lise..." She had the feeling he was going to ask her to stop this, to let him chase Jal when he couldn't even stand up. 

He struggled up on his elbows and their lips met in a soft involuntary touch. It was enough to break the stream of mental power she was sending at him. Cern reached up and pulled her head down to his, kissing her thoroughly, all traces of drowsiness disappearing like a firestorm. 

Lisa didn't resist. She couldn't have if she wanted to and gods, she certainly didn't want to. Not knowing she was with the one person who meant everything to her, who could make her heart sing like it was. The kiss lasted bare seconds, his mouth caressing hers with an odd tenderness, but it might have been eternity. When he took his mouth from hers, Lisa was startled, but his eyes, bare inches from hers were solemn.

"Sorry," he said and had to clear his throat. She didn't know what to say. Just couldn't meet his eyes. "I don't know what I was thinking." And she saw it in his expression. Regret. She knew who he was thinking of. A soulmate could never be replaced. "I shouldn't have..."

Lisa just smiled and shook her head. Blinking back tears that stung acidly, for though she couldn't hold back her inner tears, she made herself smile. Never let them see you're hurting. "When you wake up, you won't have," she answered.

"What?" But before he could say anything else, she reached out with her mind, to do what she had intended in the first place. 

And carefully pushed away his memories into somewhere he couldn't get at them. He wouldn't remember any of this; just a meaningless conversation that Lisa put there.

But she would remember.

As his eyes fell shut, his face smoothed out into slumberous serenity, and Lisa was left alone. How it had always been.

I love you too much to hurt you like this, she thought, watching him. Jal's your destined. She's your One. Not me. Never me. One thoughtless moment...that was all it was.

That would have to be enough.

****

Jal lost track of time in the horrible haze that followed. Sometimes it was dark, sometimes it was light, but all the time she ran uselessly through the maze of woodland and wild, wrestling with the wolf.

She was starving all the time, but she didn't dare to feed, in case the hunter rose up and swallowed her again. She could sense it all the time now, threatening to overwhelm her so, so easily. She couldn't go near other creatures...everywhere she looked, the orange taint swelled, and she would flee, fighting against the darkness trying to control her body, darkness wanting to rip and tear and purify.

Images of what she had done to her soulmate filled her, and eventually his face would change into one of thousands, screaming, begging, pleading. 

All ultimately dying.

The hunter bayed for Cern's blood. She had left him alive. She not finished her task. Her purpose was to kill, not to wound or maim. The thought of blood left unspilled taunted her in wild dreams, made her wake screaming from the hard ground where she had curled up. 

Her days were agony.

Her nights were other people's agony.

Every day, she was slipping away from herself, drawing closer to the abyss where she had lain sleeping so long. She knew now that for ten thousand years, the hunter had been awake. She knew she had come to Ryars Valley because Nightfire had been hunting her, fifty long years ago, and she had had to hide briefly, to keep them from destroying her.

But dragon power had corrupted the spell, and let Jal awake, pushing the hunter into the dark. Until the hunter's moon came.

It was too late now. She was becoming too weak to fight, and soon she would be gone again.

She knew the truth now. She couldn't fight it. She was a danger. A killer.

There was only one way to destroy the hunter.

Jal knew where she had to go.

****

She found him easily, sitting relaxed and still on a fallen log where the woods met civilisation. 

He was staring up at the sky, his face proud with the arch of his nose, made sharp with slanted cheekbones and fierce with those eyes that were impossibly blue, brighter than the summer sky above and icy with the cold of a thousand winters. His mouth was the only feature that softened his face, full and sensuous, but it was his eyes that caught the attention.

Blue Malefici. Descendant. Danger. Hope.

He couldn't possibly have heard her noiseless approach, but she jumped as he murmured, "Decided, have you?"

Jal swallowed. "Yes."

He looked at her, his face hard and yet so young. How could he know so much more than she ever would?

"And?"

Her throat had gone dry as a desert. "Please," she said. "Help me. Free me."

He nodded.

"But..." her desperate eyes met his, the soft crystal of them pleading. "One thing..."

He listened gravely, his face as unreadable, and she thought for one moment he would refuse, he would not aid her, and she added tremulously, "If you don't...I'll change my mind."

The withering stare he gave her silenced her. 

"I think I can manage that," he remarked, and with that graceful prowling walk, was soon gone.

****

"Oh...my neck is killing me," Jepar said with a moan. He blinked heavy eyes, sitting up from where he had simply collapsed on the floor. His tan was marred by mud, but he managed a cheerful smile.

Chatoya stretched, wincing as she felt the kinks in her own limbs from sleeping in a chair. She swung her black hair over her shoulders. "What time is it?"

"What day, actually," the darkly amused voice of Cougar said. 

She blinked, looking round and found herself in Jepar's house. Ria was still asleep, curled childlike on the big couch, while Cougar was sitting, obviously watching over the three of them. Nearby, Lisa was watching them too, but there was something odd about her face. A slightly dazed, hurt look. But it was gone at once, as Lisa realised she was being watched, replaced with shutters.

"Well, what day is it?" she said grumpily, rubbing her neck. And sat bolt upright as the events of the hunter's moon came back to her. Oh god, she had stopped Blue...and Jal had...and Ruby was...

"You've been out for the count for three days," Cougar informed her. "And babe, even you don't need that much beauty sleep. Though I can't say the same for JJ."

Jepar rolled his eyes. "Thanks." He hesitated, but the shapeshifter didn't shy away from painful topics. "What's going on with Jal? And Cern?"

Cougar and Lisa exchanged meaningful looks. Then the gold-eyed vampire sighed. "We've been talking to the Pack," he said glumly. "They've been sweeping all over for Jal, or the purebloods, at least, and once or twice they caught a glimpse, but she ran before they could catch her." He let out his breath with a whoosh. "They don't think it's the hunter anymore. Donna says she managed to catch her mind for a second, and it was too scared to be that...creature. But she could sense it nearby. Waiting."

"Meaning what?" 

The black-haired vampire grimaced. "Jal's got control of it now, but it's eating her alive from the inside out. It may be Jal now, but it won't be much longer...and then all hell's going to be let loose again."

"And Cern?"

"I'm here." She glanced round at the mellow voice. There was a ring of sadness to it. 

Cern was in the doorway. Only a few marks left on him, scars on his arms and a finally fading bruise across his face. The mahogany hair was wavy, ruffled with prolonged sleep. "Woke up yesterday...after Lise knocked me out." He gave the made vampire a look, but she kept her eyes firmly fixed on the floor. Odd, Chatoya thought. "But I guess you were right."

Lisa shrugged.

"I'm going to find her now," he said. Hollows in his eyes, and pain in his voice. 

"Don't be so bloody stupid," Jepar said flatly. "She'll tear you into pieces."

"What is it with us and soulmates?" put in Cougar gloomily. "Mine's afraid of me, yours killed you," he looked at Jepar and then the gold eyes moved to Cern. "And going on the evidence, I don't think we need to say much about yours. She said it all for us."

"In Braille, by the looks of things," Jepar said, tilting his head on one side. Cern scowled at them both. 

"Very funny. I'm glad my shattered life makes you laugh," he snapped. That was when Chatoya realised just how bad it was; Cern Akafren was the most laid-back person she'd ever met, and he didn't snap. 

"My brother's sense of humour was never exactly cultivated."

All of them stared as Blue Malefici strolled down the stairs and into the room. Another classy entrance, Chatoya thought coldly. Through the window no doubt. In true criminal style.

~ Through the skylight, actually, ~ Blue drawled. For a second his eyes pinned her and she saw the promise writ in them.

Looking away, Chatoya noticed everyone's posture change; Jepar reached for the nearest weapon, Lisa put down her book and shifted position so she could move if necessary. She could feel the tension in the room rocketing and knew someone was about to start a fight. Yet oddly, Cougar was staring at his brother as if he held the answer to this whole mess.

"Whereas you're the epitome of culture," she put in, feeling the dangerous suspense die a little as attention moved to her. "With all those refined massacres and all."

"Put your claws away," Blue advised. "And that goes for the rest of you too. I'm here to explain."

Lisa snorted, her voice harsh. "Is that the sound of Satan ice-skating?"

"I'm a hockey man, myself," Blue said coolly. "But yes."

"Go on then," Cern said flatly. Of all of them, he didn't have to fear Blue. After all, he'd never met him. "Explain why you're trying to kill *my* soulmate."

The lamia boy turned his endless stare on Cern, and Chatoya saw the witch boy drop his eyes. "She obviously hasn't told you the whole story."

We should start grilling new arrivals more thoroughly, Chatoya thought dazedly. There should be some sort of census. Tick here if you have any deep dark secrets. Please list all long-lost enemies you thought you had killed. If you have no soulmate, put a cross in the box, one will be along shortly.

"Jallakri," Blue said, settling himself on the bottom stairs, "created Nightfire."

"What?" a chorus of horrified voices said.

"The little fool didn't know it at the time, of course. Nightfire turned on her, and turned her into the creature she is today through a long process of spells. She served her purpose well, but times change. We no longer needed her...around fifty years ago, Nightfire tried to hunt her down. They failed, and she hid herself here, waiting to awaken."

"What went wrong?" Lisa said bluntly. They were all staring at Blue in fascinated horror. 

"It wasn't the hunter that awoke. It was the girl Nightfire had locked under the spells. And unfortunately...the girl found her soulmate." He glanced at them. "Is it something in the water here? It seems to be contagious."

Stony silence was his answer. Of all of them, Chatoya could feel calm. She knew this. She watched Blue's face, and knew he wasn't telling the whole truth, or even half of it. He was telling them what they needed to know...needed to know to go along with whatever he wanted from them.

"For ten thousand years, that hunter slaughtered halfbreeds. Until she went to sleep, there were virtually none. Even Redferns were at risk. The hunter must be killed..."

"No!" Cern Akafren said fiercely, his purple eyes burning.

"And that brings me to the final part in this merry tale," Blue said coolly. "Jallakri found me this morning." His eyes were clear as he looked at them all. "She wants to say her goodbyes."

The words sunk in slowly.

Cern moved so fast Chatoya didn't even see him until she realised he was going to *hit* Blue, the bloody idiot, he was—

The power lashed out casually from Blue, and the witch boy was suddenly thrown back a step or two.

"You lying bastard," Cern shouted, raw pain in his voice. "She *wouldn't*, she wouldn't do that..."

From the corner of her eyes, Chatoya saw Lisa walk out.

Blue stood up slowly, in a movement that drew all eyes to him. Power hummed about him. "Wouldn't she? Did you think she could kill?"

Horror bursting in Cern's eyes as he realised the truth of that.

"If you want to say goodbye to her, you can find her on the plateau." Blue smiled that tiny, serpentine smile that turned the air to ice. "I'm sure you remember it...it was so nearly your grave. Believe what you want, but it doesn't alter the truth." He looked at Chatoya directly, and the uncurling dark in his face made her flinch. "I haven't forgotten my promise."

After he was gone, the atmosphere held the still silence of sheer shock. Blue always seemed to trail ruin in his wake, she thought. She felt so helpless...useless.

"Cern?" she asked, unsure what else she should say or do.

Her friend looked at her. This wasn't the boy she knew – his face had lost that odd naivety that had always been there, the sweetness. He had walked through over hot coals and been burned so terribly...she wasn't sure if he'd ever heal.

"I'll go," he said grimly. "But I won't say goodbye. I am not letting her die...there has to be another way."

And if there is, she wanted to ask, do you truly think Blue will let you find it?

But she could see the determination, the love in his face. He gave her a brief smile. "I'll find it," he said, and she realised Cern had to be reading her mind. He didn't often do that. "Jal's got me, whether she wants me or not."

What she wants? Did that matter anymore?

His eyes burned into her. "It matters."

****

I would love to know what you think J


	21. Part Twenty One

He felt her slip away, and felt anguish as a part of himself was cut away and taken with her, doomed to trail hopelessly ever 

Nightfire Part Twenty One

Here we are again, Chatoya thought.

Sitting, waiting, flies stuck on a cobweb. Unsure if the spider was making its way towards them, unsure if the frail web would snap, unsure of anything.

"Should we go after him?" Jepar said uneasily. He was sitting on the floor, one hand flexing nervously. "I mean...it's Blue."

Chatoya looked at him. She didn't realise how haunted her eyes were, or she might not have met that direct emerald gaze and shown him her pain. "It's Blue...but he's doing the right thing."

"Take it from me," Cougar Redfern said wearily, "My little brother never does the right thing. He does the profitable thing."

"Rent boy, is he?" Ria's soft voice cut in, making Cougar grin, however briefly. She had obviously woken and been listening quietly, but now she stretched and moved over to where Cougar was, watching him warily to see his reaction.

She settled herself next to him, though not touching, and the pair stared at each other. Chatoya almost felt embarrassed to see the emotions playing across both their faces; one striking, one ordinary, both vulnerable. 

Then Ria slid closer, and settled into Cougar's arms, her turquoise eyes beginning to glow with a growing wonder as he sighed contentedly and tilted his dark head against hers.

Her face was soft and flushed with sleep, as close to prettiness as it would ever get. But Cougar was looking at her like she was Aphrodite herself. She was smiling tremulously, the kind of happiness that was deep enough to draw tears. "What have I missed?"

"Me," Cougar said with astounding arrogance.

She elbowed him in the ribs. "Apart from you...why are you all looking so serious?"

"Jal's gone to Blue," Chatoya murmured, seeing the girl's face change with regret. Why did even the mention of Blue's name wither some of that fragile pleasure? "It turns out she created Nightfire...and in return, they made her a murderer, and it also turns out they're the only ones who can unmake her."

"Unmake her *how*?" Ria said. The narrow-eyed glare was a trait she had definitely picked up from Cougar. Her red-gold hair was stark against his dark shirt. 

"In the best traditions of all old religions," Jepar answered. The purring voice held no traces of laughter, nothing but bleakness. "With death."

****

It was a long time since Blue Malefici had entertained doubts.

But now, one seemed to have snuck into his head as quietly as that wretched soulmate of his, and had set up home and started buying furniture. Juts one little, niggling doubt.

He didn't have a clue if this would work.

Blue didn't have a lot of trust in his forefathers. For a start, they had made Jallakri what she was. Secondly, they had let her kill them. Now that was sheer carelessness.

The little fool followed Blue dumbly. He glanced back occasionally to check that she hadn't run off to do some of her own brand of highly inelegant murder, and always found her there, with her unnaturally long hair dragging on twigs and catching up leaves, with her eyes downcast. She was hurting, he saw that, pulling herself into strips for her actions, and he was glad of it.

After all, if your target was hurting themselves, they weren't likely to be hurting you too. 

He dipped into her mind briefly, because there was something odd about the way she moved. Yes, she looked subdued, but there was a poise to her that hadn't been there in the unknowing creature he had talked to earlier. A certain glint to her pale eyes, the way her glance flicked to his throat for a split second.

~ Glowing that foul, tainted orange and her teeth itched to sink into his white flesh, to see if he bled as blue as his name, to— ~

He reached around and broke her arm with no effort. She screamed. 

The pain jolted her out of that dark reverie.

"What did you do that for?" she gasped, clutching her arm. The fresh naivety back in her face, for a moment making her startlingly reminiscent of someone he had once known. Another fool, she had been, but he had stopped her deluding herself.

She had probably had a name. Something human. He didn't care.

He shrugged, not stopping to aid her. "I could waste my energy controlling you or let pain control you. That was easier."

"It was crueller," she whispered.

"Only from where you're standing." 

Finally. He felt the aura of power around this place, power that came from long centuries of authority and bloodshed. The Pack clearing, ringed with wolves that lay watchful and wary. Ready for the sacrifice.

****

Cern Akafren had never run so fast. His mind wouldn't still, screaming at him to hurry because he knew that ifhe lost her then there would be nothing left of him. So much of his spirit had become wrapped around her, she held safe his secrets and his dreams. 

Even after everything, he still loved her.

He flung out his mind, powers he almost never used but right now, he would have killed for Jal. *Killed*.

Some part of him recognised how dangerous that was, but it was obliterated by his anguish. Nearby, but still too far away, in the Pack clearing. His legs felt heavy and filled with bars of steel-strong pain, but still he kept on because he couldn't stop now.

To stop was to lose everything.

****

Jal saw her own death in these people. And she was afraid, so afraid, but the hunter was rising in her again. She wrenched her broken arm until a whimper escaped her, tears slipping out with it, and knew that she no longer had a choice.

She couldn't risk becoming that creature again. Not even for Cern. There was too much blood between them...Blue had been right. She didn't belong here. Maybe she never had. 

Donna Ares stepped in front of them, her hands on her hips, and her tangled red hair brushing her wrists. There was an air of ceremony to her, her head held proudly up. "This is the land of the moon's children."

"I seek entrance," Blue Malefici said. The words sounded formal, odd in this place that reeked of metallic sharpness and something that the hunter's instincts whispered was blood, oh, that she wanted to lap at—

She gave her arm another twist. Better herself than Blue.

"Denied," Donna answered. "You have drawn Pack blood."

"I am here to make amends." Again the words had the sense of ritual. Neither was saying what they really felt or wanted. "I bring you a gift, a death to satisfy your Pack."

Donna turned her eyes on Jal, and the sheer hate in the cool fire of her emerald eyes made Jal move closer to Blue, before she reconsidered and moved away again. "It will do. Enter, and make tribute."

She stepped aside, and the wolves snarled softly, the sound rippling around the circle like a wave. 

"Honour shall be satisfied," Blue said, a slight ring of mockery to his words. "And now that's done...have you done what I asked?"

"With more grace than you asked," one of the wolves said. It was an old one, grizzled and silver, one of the few wolves still in human form. "You took your time."

"You know mortals," Blue said, shrugging. "All sentiment."

"I was one once," the wolf said dangerously. "Which is more than can be said for you."

Jal felt a tingle along her back, like the flicker of a snake's tongue, and Blue slowly, oh so slowly, turned until the full force of his stare hit the older wolf. It froze, and tried to back into the Pack. 

"I don't believe in denying my nature," Blue murmured. "Why is it so right for your Pack to kill vermin, yet wrong for me to kill vermin of a different kind?"

"You kill our people," the wolf snapped, fear and anger mixed together in the faded brown of its eyes. 

Blue smiled, but there was no humour to it. None at all...only the cold embedded in him that seemed to stretch back into times before even Jal had been born. "A rat is a rat is a rat."

"You're nothing but a monster!"

He tilted his head to one side, looking almost innocent then. A pause, and the silence unwound like a falling spool of thread. 

"Yes," he said.

Jal felt the power lash out from him like razor claws, hitting the wolf with an accuracy and swiftness that left her gasping. The wolf crumpled into a bloody bundle, but as Jal squinted at the body, she saw something was wrong.

"You've taken his heart," a furious Donna hissed. "I ain't having you defiling the bodies of my people."

The heart, she realised, was on the other thing in the clearing that struck her. She knew it, of course, she had seen them burning in the temple so often. A pyre. Fire purifies. Fire cleanses. Fire kills.

"For a start, it's 'am not'. Grammar is a always a welcome trait in a leader." The lamia boy moved forward, soundless and lithe. "Secondly...if you don't like it, please, try and stop me, wolfling." Donna didn't move. "All bark and no bite? Smart girl. Thirdly...this ritual requires sacrifice. He was becoming inconvenient. He is now convenient again."

"He was one of my Pack!" the girl said, but more quietly.

A light laugh. "Yes, but none of you helped him. Not one of you told him to stay silent. You could all see what was going to happen...and you let it. Who's the greater monster here?"

Silence. Somehow, he had won.

He turned to Jal, his eyes cool. A flare of black fire, and the heart appeared in his hands. She stared, horrified as he crushed it between his palms until they were solely scarlet. 

As he reached for her, she flinched back. A hot searing pain in her spine, and he had forced her forwards with power, daubing the blood onto her forehead, her lips, her throat, her ears, her hands, finally onto her eyelids. The smell made her reel dizzily.

"On the pyre," he said calmly.

She hesitated, and his next words were for her only. "Can you smell the blood, Jallakri? Doesn't it bring your senses to life? Wouldn't you just *kill* for it...?"

With a cry, she realised he was right, so right. She almost flew over to the wood, scrambling onto the platform set in the centre, trembling unbearably, understanding that sharp smell was gasoline, sent to guide her back to the abyss. She would go back there, alone, forever.

But now...she would remember a boy with summer in his eyes. 

Suddenly, she wasn't so afraid. This was how it had to be. It was how it had to be from that moment she made a wish to an indifferent goddess, from the moment she let her desire blind her to anyone else.

Blue was speaking words aloud, harsh syllables that made her head fall back, eyes half-closing as the hunter was dragged up to the surface, splitting apart from her and soon, she knew, soon the cleansing would come, and they would be not one, but two—

"Stop!" someone shouted, and that frantic voice pulled Jal from her trance and made her almost fall.

He was here.

****

Oh gods, above and beyond, she was going to do it. She really was. 

The thought almost wrenched his heart clean from his body. He made himself walk over to her, crouched in the midst of that pyre, with crimson slashes across her face and clothes, wild and feral and yet still his.

He couldn't let go of her. He knew that now.

"Jal..." His voice wouldn't work. It was choked, and he didn't know why, except that all his pain seemed to have lodged in his throat, and mere words would not release it. "Please...don't."

Her lips moving, saying words that rang harsh in his world of silent agony. "I have to."

"You don't," he said desperately. "You *don't*."

She stared at him, and he could see a fine quivering had taken over her body. Then she leapt off, inhumanly lissom, and pressed her bloody lips to his.

The link opened up with a ferocity he had never experienced, one that knocked them both to their knees. Of course, he thought dazedly, blood.

But then he *saw*. He felt the hunter, pushing at him, roaring across his body, making him into something he could not bear to be. He saw all the horror, he saw the tides of others' lives being drained into this creature...and however he screamed and shouted and begged, the truth would not go away.

He understood.

She let go, and drew back, on her knees in the dust. He could hardly see her now, breathing through the cloud of death that seemed to hang around them. 

Her eyes were so different from when he had first seen them. No longer terrified and innocent, they were full of tearing guilt and age he could only see in the stars that spun above.

"Where will you go?" he whispered. Maybe she would be reborn. Maybe...

She understood what he meant.

"Don't search for me," she said, her voice heavy with sorrow. "You will never find me. Maybe somewhere...maybe somewhen, you'll see me, but I don't think so."

"That won't stop me looking," he said, unable to tell her just how much she meant, now that she would be gone. "I found you before. I'll find you again."

She shook her head slowly and as if to remind them both, that flaring red streak of hair fell into her eyes. "No. I don't think there's anything left for me except the fire and the void." She touched a hand to his face, hesitant and for the first time, was his Jal, sweet and unsure. "Don't be sad. This was how it was always going to be. I always wished for too much."

"What would you wish for now?"

"If I had that moment again?" She ducked her head for a second, then her face, so afraid and so loving it broke his heart, was tipped up to him again. "I don't know. If I hadn't...if I hadn't made that choice, I would never have known you. And I think...I think I need you. I think I always will. But I think that love can't balance what I did."

"You could try," he said softly, pushing back the silk of golden hair that fell into her eyes and shadowed them from the sunlight. Knowing even as he said it that it was hopeless. 

"No." She was close again now, like she had been that first time when it had been the beginning of something Cern Akafren had known would change his life from mundane to something beyond his grasp. Every moment with her was like catching hold of the tail of a comet and flying through worlds that were so far away and yet burned so bright.

Knowing that someday, that glorious, heartrending flight would end. Knowing that she would burn herself out. But gods, oh gods, holding on so tight because one moment of her searing soul would block out that long, dark fall into the abyss.

"It would happen again," she said, her voice melancholy. "I would lose myself again and one day, you wouldn't be there to bring me back. If that happened...Jallakri would be dead. And then Nightfire would have won. Don't you see? I have no choice. I had one choice and maybe I made the wrong one. Or maybe it was the right choice and this is how it's supposed to be."

She was shaking now; both of them were. "It's supposed to hurt? It's supposed to feel like someone's tearing my heart out? I can't let go of you, Jal. Not anymore."

"That's how it's meant to be for me," she said gravely. "But not for you. If you look hard, Cern Akafren, if you look beyond your soul and beyond your pain, you'll see there's peace there for you. It's always been there. You just didn't see it."

"Jal..."

A shimmer of tears, but she held them back. "I shouldn't have waited this long. When I first guessed what was happening, I should have done that then. But please don't tell me you love me or I might be tempted to stay and that can't...it can't be. You understand, don't you?"

She turned and looked at the horizon then, her face clear and full of faith. And he realised that perhaps Jallakri ap Ganra would be hurt more by staying than by dying. In the East, the hot sun burned, staving off the nightfires.

"Goodbye," she said, turning back to him. For a moment, he felt the hunter in her surge, and was afraid again. She gasped, and swayed, her eyes turning deep garnet. Then it had passed, and only Jal remained.

"Will you wait for me?" The question escaped before he could stop it, and he couldn't meet her eyes.

He felt her stand. When had she become so old? There was a sudden softness in her voice. "I will do better than that."

He couldn't watch as she stepped onto the pyre. As Blue Malefici's voice began to recite the words, he kept his head lowered, not even starting when he felt someone touch him, their arms wrapping round him as if they could hold him on the earth. It was the Pack, creeping forward to cling to him and to try and give what comfort they could.

"What are you doing," he said numbly. It wasn't a question.

"We aren't here for her," a voice said. He knew Jal's head had fallen back, that the hunter was separating from her, that the two spirits were fighting to be free of the cage of flesh that shackled them.

"The wolf lives in you," another chimed in. He could no longer see or hear. He was lost to Jal, to everything she was.

"We are here for you," a third said, little more than a ghostly howl. Blue's voice cut out, and he felt his silhouette pass by, over to the pyre where Jal waited, trembling. 

A soft hiss, then heat exploded onto his skin, searing away the tears.

He screamed.

He felt Jal burning, heard her screaming in his head as her voice split into two. Fires around him, sinking into a sunset, with those two voices twining around him. One dark and dreadful, howling its rage as it died.

And one laughing. Laughing to be free at last.

****

This is the last part of the story, bar an epilogue :-) I'd love to know what you've thought of this, or of the story as a whole. Thanks for reading – sorry about the huge parts, and delays. You guys have a lot of patience, you're absolute angels – thanks!


	22. Epilogue

Jal turned to him and her eyes were so different from when he had first seen them

Okay...first of – thank you *so* much to all of you who have commented through the story – I appreciate the time you've taken to tell me what you think, to help me out with what's wrong and for all your encouragement :-) You have been absolutely, totally amazing – thank you from the bottom of my heart. 

Thanks to those of ye angels who reviewed last time round:

Persephone (I try to do the unexpected :-) I hope it worked out! Thank you for all your comments – you've been wonderful. The story about Blue comes after Remember.)

Dead Flower (I was rather in a life sucks sort of mood when I wrote it. ::grins:: Ah Lisa, and Cern...you've seen my cunning plan...thank you for all the comments. You're always refreshingly honest.)

Disappointed Again (Well, I'm glad the story made you react...if you want to hate it, fair enough, that's your prerogative. Thanks!)

Dwayberry (I just wanted to writesomething that wasn't happy, y'know? I get really sick of happiness sometimes :-) And it was definitely a challenge!)

Diomede (Chatoya and Blue are coming up after I'm done with Remember :-) There is soemthing called SAD – seasonal affective disorder, which means you get down when the weather is bad :-) Thank you so much!)

Starwisher (Thanks! Well, yeah…I really couldn't see how Jal could survive in the modern world.)

Me (I kind of like sadness :-) Some of my favourite songs are sad ones. Thank you for all your comments :-) )

Dark Angel (Thank you! I find writing sad endings difficult, so I'm glad that it worked! Thanks!)

Myst (It was a bit of a tragedy, I know! I didn't mean for it to get this long. The next one is aiming to be a little angsty...what I write is basically how I feel. Thank you for all your comments!)

Your Peachiness (I have got the epilogue – it's here J Thanks!)

And thanks to everyone else who's commented – Cece, Dee, Eyrien, Katherine, Galli-vi, Ice Princess, Kate, Kirsty Marie, Millennia, Nixa, Ria, Sapamfa, Starrika, Taito's Child, Water Angel, Wind Dancer and :o) – you've all been wonderful, I have been totally knocked out!

Comments would be adored like summer days - revelled in, cherished, and fervently wished for! Please tell me what you think - I love hearing, all your comments and criticisms make the story what it is :-)

Nightfire Epilogue

No, no, no, no, this couldn't be happening, not to him, not to her, not to them...he was burning in a haze of fire, turning into ashes and powder. But then he realised it wasn't him, it was her, oh dear gods, it was her, why couldn't it be him? Better that, better he should die than she.

But it was her,and she was leaving him here.

The wolves clung to Cern Akafren as he tried to get up, shouting her name, trying...why, please, why wouldn't they let him go to her? Why?

And the pain snapped out, leaving him in a floating golden haze. But he could feel the link, still breathing and pulsing.

A husky, unsteady voice. "Open your eyes, witch boy. Your darlin' wants you."

He felt the wolves back away, whining. Something was...wrong. It broke through the numbness, and he obeyed that voice.

For a moment, he saw nothing but blurred outlines. Then...a silvery form, kneeling before him.

Jal.

Jal, with her face smooth and young and heartbreaking. Saying words that he couldn't understand, and maybe that was always how it had to be. And then she reached for him, her touch a cool flame on his skin, and kissed him.

A wash of cold, and for one moment he *was* Jal, screaming in a temple, running through a wood, sobbing in his arms, dying for his love.

Breathe out, feel a part of himself drawn into her. Breathe in, a rush of energy sinking into that part of him that was not physical but spiritual. Breathe for breath, life for life, heartbeat for heartbeat. 

There was only the ocean-wash of their breath and touch, the tremulous touch of her mouth, the fevered clutch of her hands that tried to cling to him and failed because they were inches apart, but worlds away.

Her love sank into him, melded with his spirit as surely as she once had, as if he were a dream-catcher and she the nightmare, destined to dissolve as his memories did.

And as he watched, she began to fade, the sunlight catching through until she was only shimmers and gold.

He felt her slip away, and felt anguish as a part of himself was cut away and taken with her, doomed to trail hopelessly ever after the ghost of a golden girl with sweet and sad crystal eyes. Part of him, condemned to call for a girl who would give no answer, to wake up reaching for her and sleep yearning for her.

Only the remnants of her love were bitter in his soul.

****

Two weeks on:

Shadows.

They were so soft, so mysterious. Regarded as darkness, yet without light they would never exist. They lay between the night and the day, ghostly insubstantial things that grew and changed with the movement of the world. 

It amused Blue Malefici that so few people realised that they were shadows.

He was watching one of them. Sitting among her friends, with that long black hair as tightly controlled as her emotions as she plaited it carefully. 

"Malefici."

He half-turned at the voice, and nodded to the boy who sat down. "How goes life?" he inquired lazily. "And more importantly, death. Enjoying the summer?"

"Not as much as you," the boy chimed eagerly. His eyes fixed on Blue with a hungry, morbid interest. "Did it scream? Did you burn it slowly?" 

Blue flicked his eyes to the boy for an instant and it was enough to shut Aspen Martin up. Of the pair, he could pass as human most easily, with only his eyes giving him away. They changed colour from moment to moment but...both eyes were different colours. "Yes and no."

"Pity," Aspen said, sounding disappointed.

The vampire was known for his attitude. While Blue was considered easy going, fun, a people person, Aspen's crazy, uncontrollable moods had alienated everyone he had hit. About half the school.

It was ironic, because of the pair of them, they both knew Blue was the most dangerous.

He shrugged. "Pain stimulates some creatures. I didn't want to find out if that girl was one of them. How goes Pursang?"

Aspen beamed. "Good as ever. Another three Daybreakers dead, and the Asian Nightworld split by civil war. God, their screams sounded so *go-od*..." There was a wildness to his eyes, something that spoke of a rabid animal. "Don't need to ask what Nightfire's been up to. Reckon I could have done it better though."

"As I recall," Blue drawled, "when Pursang did come across Ms. ap Ganra, you stopped to paint a portrait of her. And left a considerable amount of information."

"Not my fault," Aspen put in, rearranging his brown hair so the three blond streaks sweeping back from his forehead showed better. "That information was lost long before I ever got to the top. Anyway, what about K'Shaia? They practically gave her tea and bloody biscuits!"

"Keep your voice down," Blue advised coolly. "Therese doesn't want the name of her business spread all over town."

"Whatever," Aspen said carelessly. "What does it matter if they know? We can just kill them."

"Metaphorically speaking," the lamia added, a warning in his voice as people looked over. His eyes froze over, and Aspen gulped, looking away.

"Yeah, well, that information on ap Ganra or whatever the name was," he continued quietly, "was lost before I came to power. If I find out who has it—"

"I think you'll find that's a vampire by the name of Darkstar," Blue cut in, his face serene and innocent. 

Aspen's drifting eyes focused for a moment. "One day I'll find out how you do that," he remarked. His voice was carefully neutral. "I'll bet even you react to torture."

"Play enough Backstreet Boys and I'll tell you almost anything," Blue agreed dryly.

Aspen Martin traced a circle in the grass with his index finger. Where it touched the ground, it left a charred black trail. "I have some people near Darkstar's offices," he murmured. "I'll send them in. So," he said in his light voice. "What is your unhealthy interest with Circle Strange, that little group of outcasts?"

Blue smiled. "One of them defied me."

Aspen stared. It was a rare day when Blue surprised him. It was time to start wearing body armour when he did it twice.

"What?" Aspen said, his fangs baring. "Very funny, Malefici, now what do you really want with them?"

Blue turned his brilliant, disturbing smile on him. "No joke. I warned her what would happen if she did. I gave her my word."

Aspen's eyes glinted, hands bracing his body as he leaned forward. The hungry look was back. "Can I watch while you tear her apart?"

He felt the power swell from Blue. "Over your dead body."

"Pity." The other vampire looked over at the group. "Which one is it? The dragon? She's powerful. Or maybe the Ochai girl...sure you don't want any help?" he pleaded, turning his large liquid eyes to Blue. He couldn't quite meet the icy breaches. 

"Oh no." The velvet dark in his voice was soft, alluring. "This one is in for some very special treatment."

"Friends share," grumbled Aspen. "There's no one round here you can torture."

Blue glanced at him. "What about all those Nightpeople that have been going missing lately? Aren't they enough for you, Aspen?"

The madness dimmed in his eyes. "That's not me. Wish it was...whoever's killing them's doing a *fine* job." He drew out the 'fine', his voice a sigh. "I found a body...but they're hiding the rest well. It stank of human. Can't we hunt them down? Maybe this weekend? I have a garrotte I want to try out..."

Blue's eyes were shut as he relaxed. "I can make some time."

He would destroy Chatoya Irkil.

And the best part of it was that she would see what he was doing, but she would be powerless to stop him.

****

"Oh gods, what happened to *you*?" Ria exclaimed in horror when Jepar turned up.He had stitches in his head, and a graze all long one side of his face.

"Let me guess," Cougar said. "Either you and Tali have been having S and M fun, or you told her about that stunt Ruby pulled."

The shapeshifter sat down, unsmiling. "You'd think she would have been a bit more forgiving," he remarked. "But she's okay with it now. After I showed her that there wasn't a lot I could have done to stop it." He frowned. "Whatever it was."

"How did you manage to get near enough?" Ria appeared to be trying not to smile. Chatoya was relieved. There hadn't been much to smile about lately.

Jepar's green eyes glittered briefly. "Well, after she hit me with the silver candlestick – which I'm melting down incidentally – she thought she might have killed me, so she kind of leant over me, and I being the 'immoral, scheming blond' I am, took advantage of the fact she wasn't holding a weapon."

"She knows you so well," was Cougar's input. "Don't suppose you saw Akafren on your way over?"

The cheetah boy shook his head, his face darkening. "Nope."

None of them had seen Cern.

A fortnight since Jal had died and everything had changed beyond Chatoya's comprehension. They had waited, waited for him, then waited for a message, then waited for anything. Finally, Donna Ares had appeared at their door, with her face detached and hard.

"Think there's some things I better explain," she said, hovering outside the door, her sense of territory keeping her out of Circle Strange's space. Even when they beckoned her in, wanting to hear anything about what had happened since Cern left, chasing Blue and Jal, she shook her head. "We're looking after your witch boy now."

"You?" Cougar had been openly sceptical. "No offence, Donna, but we're his friends."

"Friends with soulmates, most of you. If it was you, would you want to be here?" The emerald eyes had softened with compassion as she saw their faces. "Oh, I don't reckon it'll be forever. But he needs to be somewhere to think. There's wolf blood in that boy, and he's closer to it now."

"Hunting helps," Jepar chimed in. She remembered how the cheetah shifter had disappeared when his sister died, setting free his anger in the only way he could. "Maybe it'll be good for him. For a while."

But a while had come and gone, and a week had stretched into two weeks, and they hadn't even caught a glimpse of him.

Now, Jepar paused, then said softly, "but I saw Lisa."

"How is she?" Chatoya said. What had happened to Cern had hit Lisa harder than the rest of them. They had always been close and this...it was crucifying her. It worried her to see the sadness in Lisa's face, and the strange look that was in her eyes sometimes.

Jepar considered his answer for a moment. "Angry. Seriously, completely furious."

"What? *Lisa*?"

The shapeshifter shrugged. "All she said was 'why won't he see?' and then stormed off."

Why won't he see...it sparked an idea that had been floating around Chatoya's head for some time now, but she dismissed it. Lisa had never been shy about showing her affections. Like the rest of them, she was just worried sick.

****

Lisa saw him falling apart and could do nothing.

"Bring him back to us," she prayed. Bring him back to me, she whispered in the depths of her soul.

She had met with the Pack so often lately, trying to understand how she could help. But the Pack themselves were worried, under that hard exterior and defensiveness. They saw him as Pack now, but they weren't his Pack. She was, and Circle Strange was, however Cern might deny it. 

The Pack had helped in the only way they knew. Donna would try and haul him into the vibrant arguments she so often had. Felicity would cook for him, and pretend she didn't see the weight he had lost, the way he seemed almost translucent now. The only part of him that held any substance was his eyes.

They were the eyes of someone letting themselves drown.

He didn't look at them anymore, but right through them. She had loved his smile once, fresh and startling. Now she had to cling to the memory of his smile, because he was wreathed in sorrow. Becoming a ghost, a ghost of a person, chasing after a girl with the sun in her hair and the night in her heart.

And she had had enough. It hurt to be near him, but it hurt even more to be far from him and to know he suffered so.

The Pack nodded to her as she strode into their woodland haunt, which looked something like a kid's den, only on a large scale. "Try the clearing," Donna said briefly. "But I don't think he'll listen to you. He ain't listening to us."

Well, he'll damn well listen to *me*, Lisa thought. She had left him alone, and she knew that a fortnight was scarce time to mourn, but this wasn't mourning. This was suicide. He was killing himself slowly, and she wouldn't stand back this time and let it happen.

She found him staring at the scorched ground, all that remained of Jallakri ap Ganra. She caught her breath at how pale he had gotten, how lean his face was now. 

"What are you doing?" she said aloud, sadly.

He didn't turn. "Go away."

"No." Silence, long silence while she walked to stand beside him. "Please stop this."

"Stop what?" he said bitterly. 

She turned and looked at his eyes, that soft bruised colour, and hurt. "Don't play games with me. You think Jal would have wanted this?"

"You didn't like her," he said with startling perceptiveness. That rock-hard stare turned on her, but she met the pain of his stare. Lisa found herself off-guard, without a glib answer or an easy diversion. "Why?"

She floundered. What to say? The old lies wouldn't spring to her mind under his eyes. Finally, she could only answer with the truth, because he would know anything else was a lie. "I knew what she was."

Raw shock made his face gaunt. "What? How? Why didn't you..."

"The same way Donna knew you were a werewolf when you met her," she answered. "The same way Tali can know other dragons. It's just like they say...it takes one to know one."

"You're..." She had startled him from that numbness, and was glad, even though it tore savagely at her to see that what replaced it was horror.

"Not exactly," she said calmly. "But we're both creations of Nightfire. We're only what we're made to be."

"But you're thirty," he whispered, the first quiver of life rippling through his eyes. If the confession of her very soul would bring back his smile, she would bare it to the world.

"I lied."

"Why?"

"The same reasons Jal did. I was scared. I didn't know what she was exactly until the hunter's moon. But I knew she was...like me. Someone changed her soul a long time ago with magick." She dropped her eyes. Still the same shame for what she was. "I...escaped. I was lucky. Others weren't." She looked at him and what she saw made her press a hand to her mouth so he wouldn't see she was trying not to cry. "Please don't hate me." 

"I couldn't hate her," he murmured and smiled tiredly. The anguish was there. "How can I hate you?" He fell silent for a moment, but then said, "I'm just lost without her. Why does it hurt? How can anything hurt like this? Did I just forget? I remember how it was when Becky died, but..."

"It's not just her this time," she said. "it's you too. Please, Cern...don't stay with the Pack. Even if you don't want to see any of the others, they're worried. If it hurts to be around them, at least see the rest of us."

He looked at his friend, who was pleading with him, begging him, and thought of what Jal had said to him. He had tried not to think about her, because it only brought back those moments that fell away like a castle of sand beneath the tide. 

~ There's peace for you, ~ she had said. ~ You just didn't see it. ~

So here he was. With this choice again. She had chosen the dark. And he could choose that too, and hope...hope she would be there, waiting. Standing on the desert sands, like he dreamed her every night, with her hair loose and wild in the wind, waiting for him. But he knew it was never real. It was never her, only the wishes his mind made

Or this. He knew what Jal would have wanted.

He walked out of the clearing that day, and back to his Pack. And he hoped that somewhere, that girl who had once told him that he was her moon, that she would howl for him in the endless night, that girl was watching him, and smiling.

That night, he dreamed he saw her, running across a desert land with a pack of wolves, beautiful and brilliant in the endless night. It was her, he felt her spirit, clean and strong in the world she belonged to.

Wolves that ran towards safety, towards the shelter from the morning sun. He called her name and she stopped, drawing away from the Pack, her body rippling felinely until the girl with the sunfire hair and ice-crystal eyes stood on the sands. 

She turned and looked towards him and it seemed that she smiled and in that moment, she was his, only and always his. 

And then the sun rose.

She threw her head back and screamed as the sands leapt up around her and became flames. He understood that he would always lose her this way, she would always be consumed by the sun's fire. That she would never be his for longer than that fleeting moment.

She was gone.

He would never forget her. 

****

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